California Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace is up and running on schedule!

As of this morning, websites for state-based health insurance comparison shopping are operational.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ACA for short, (or "Obamacare" or "Romneycare version 2.0" if you wish) to date has:
-made it illegal for your health insurance to refuse to continue to insure you if you become ill
-required your health insurance to allow you to keep your children on your policy until they are 26
-made it illegal for insurance companies to refuse to cover you because of pre-existing medical       conditions
-provided rebates to employers who already provide health plans
-has reduced the Part D drug coverage "donut hole"(this will be gradually reduced to zero by 2020)

Regardless of one's political leanings, I have yet to talk with a patient who didn't think these were good ideas.  And hey, Congress passed the ACA and it was signed into law by the President.

The next stage has involved states (or the Federal government, if a state declines providing patients and small businesses (50 or fewer employees) with a single website that allows them to compare coverage and pricing for more affordable health insurance with coverage of outpatient care, hospital care, surgery, preventive care, and healthcare of pregnancy, newborns and children.

And now, it's here.  In California, the program is called Covered California.  Check it out for yourself.  Even if you already have insurance through work, it's nice to comparison shop.  I'm already pleasantly surprised that the cost of insuring my family through Covered California with Blue Shield compares very favorably to the Blue Shield I provide at my office.  My next step will be to see whether I can come up with a small business plan for my office that's better than what I currently have.

Mind you, if you already have insurance you are perfectly happy with, "Obamacare" doesn't affect you.  On the other hand, if you have no insurance or aren't happy with what you've got this may be the solution to your problem.

We are contracted with Covered California Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

We are optimistic about the potential for this program to keep people with no insurance or really high deductible plans from falling through the cracks.