Politics

HealthCare.gov

By Karina

At the heart of the Affordable Care Act was the goal to put Americans in charge of their health care, not the insurance companies. Today, the Administration launched HealthCare.gov, the most comprehensive resource about health care available?providing consumers with information to compare health plans and find information about the Affordable Care Act.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius explains:

HealthCare.gov will help take some of the mystery out of shopping for health insurance. For too long, it was confusing to identify your options and compare plans. HealthCare.gov makes comparison shopping easier with a new insurance finder that allows users to answer a few basic questions and receive information about insurance options that could work for them. The site makes a system that thrived on complication and confusion easier to understand. This kind of transparency helps create informed consumers which increases competition, reduces prices and improves quality.

Here are just some of the basics about what you can find when you visit:

Approximately 500 pages of content

Data for more than 1,000 insurance carriers and 5,561 open products (2,030 in the individual health insurance market and 3,531 in the small employer health insurance market)

Information on every Medicaid and Children?s Health Insurance Program in the country

Information on the Pre-Existing Condition Plan in every state.

Billions of choices. Answer a few basic questions, and the site?s insurance finder automatically sorts through a huge catalog of public and private coverage options to help you identify the ones that are right for you (with billions of potential personal scenarios supported).

HealthCare.gov will continue to get even better in the months ahead. In October, 2010, price estimates for health insurance plans will be available online, and the site includes easy ways for users to tell us how we can make HealthCare.gov more helpful and easier to use.

The creation of this website was included in the Affordable Care Act to ensure middle class families, workers, and small business owners will have access to the information they need to make informed choices about their health insurance. If you go to http://finder.healthcare.gov/ and enter your state, age range, and current insurance status, the site will generate a list of health insurance options offered in your area. As Secretary Sebelius wrote, beginning in October, the site will also include pricing information, further simplifying health insurance shopping.

So go take a look»

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).