"If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," a claim President Obama made repeatedly to encourage the American public to embrace the Affordable Care Act, turned out to be not true. After the controversial law's roll out in October, millions of people began receiving cancellation notices.

That is the primary reason why the claim is the winner of PolitiFact's 2013 "Lie of the Year" award. In a separate online survey, readers "overwhelmingly agreed" with PolitiFact's choice.

"Boiling down the complicated health care law to a soundbite proved treacherous, even for its promoter-in-chief," wrote PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan. "Obama and his team made matters worse, suggesting they had been misunderstood all along. The stunning political uproar led to this: a rare presidential apology."

The apology, delivered during an NBC News interview, came after Obama and administration officials revised their pitch to state that "what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning website has been giving out the award since 2009. In 2012 it went to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his claim that Chrysler was moving jobs from Ohio to China.

BET Politics - Your source for the latest news, photos and videos illuminating key issues and personalities in African-American political life, plus commentary from some of our liveliest voices. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)