Information Resource on the New Healthcare Law

Many of us do not fully understand how the new federal healthcare law will affect us.  The law, known as the Affordable Care Act, was signed into law on March 23, 2010.  But only some parts of the new law go into effect immediately.  Many parts of the law are phased-in over time, and won't be implemented until 2014 or later. 

Now there is another resource for information about important provisions of the Act and how they will affect you.  The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a new website where you can get specific information about the dates when various parts of the law will go into effect and how the provisions will work.  The site is also supposed to serve as an online tool to compare the health insurance plans available to you under the Act.  The website is found at HealthCare.gov. 

According to HHS, the website contains a central database of health coverage options and provides information about public insurance programs, such as Medicare and the newly created pre-existing conditions insurance plan, as well as information on more than 1,000 private plans. Rankings for local health care providers will also be available on the site according to HHS.