New Site Launched: Find Health Coverage; Understand the Law; Be Preventative

In need of health insurance but not sure where to start? The federal government launched a site today for such a situation. But that's not all the site offers. They way I see it, Healthcare.gov has three major strengths:

1. Finding Coverage: Go to healthcare.gov to fill out a short survey - and I mean short. It literally took me less than a minute to complete the questions. They're easy, too: state of residence, gender and age for example. A list is generated of possible health care options, and where more information can be found.

It being a new site, it is a little incomplete, but the site promises to keep on expanding. Prices for private health plans will be provided by October for easy comparison, for example. There are also suggestions generated on my list of health care options that are irrelevant for me, and another survey question would probably resolve this issue. Overall, however, I find this site to be a big help in figuring out where to start on the overwhelming challenge of finding health care.

2. Getting to the Root - Prevention: One of the most promising features of the Web site is the "Learn About Prevention" page. As it states: One of the best ways to improve the quality of your life - and control your health care costs - is to prevent illness in the first place."

Again, this is a portion of the site that is promised to be expanded, so there's not a whole lot there, yet. Still, I was able to get a list of health precautions I should look into, given my gender and age, and why it is important that I consider doing so.

3. Encouraging a Health Literate Society: Did you know that part of the new health care plan provides funding for construction and expansion of services at community health centers? Or that the new $15 billion Prevention and Public Health Fund will invest in proven prevention and public health programs?

I learned these things from the "Understand the New Law" portion of the site. The easy-to-use timeline conveys the planned implementation time frame for features of the new law. Also under this tab: About the Law, and Initiatives.

I highly recommend checking this out.