FIND INSURANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, THE UNINSURED AND THOSE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS AT HEALTHCARE.GOV 1JUL10 &U.S. Health Care Expensive And Underperforming: Study 24JUN10

For many families and small businesses, finding the right insurance plan has meant spending hours on the phone deciphering confusing insurance company lingo and reading way too much fine print. Today finding health insurance just got easier with the launch of HealthCare.gov.
The innovative new website developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helps you understand all the health insurance options available in your local area for you and your family. After answering just a few basic questions, the website's insurance finder will identify public and private coverage options that might be right for you.  

From HealthCare.gov you can receive updates on the implementation of the new law and, as the website grows, you will be able to research health plan quality ratings, learn about disease prevention, and compare health plan prices all in one place. 

This website is just the beginning of the transparency and peace of mind promised by the new law to check the insurance companies' bad practices and greedy behavior. HealthCare.gov represents an important step in implementation and allows us all to take health care into our own hands.

HealthCare.gov represents an important step as we move forward to end the insurance company's stranglehold over the American health care system.  We hope that this resource will move us closer the peace of mind promised by the new law.

In Solidarity,

Melinda Gibson
Health Care for America Now

P.S. Uninsured due to a pre-existing condition?  Check out the new high risk insurance pools at HealthCare.gov.

 

U.S. Health Care Expensive And Underperforming: Study

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/us-health-care-expensive_n_624248.html

We'll have to wait and see how well the United States men's soccer team fares now that they are in the knockout stages of international competition at the World Cup, but if there's one thing we can all take pride in is the fact that we are the Champions of Health Care! Top prize goes to the system that best combines mediocrity with stratospheric costs, right?
No? Well, that's bad news then, because according to a new study by the Commonwealth  Fund that relieves health care reform proponents of having to cite outdated statistics from the World Health Organization, that's precisely the sort of health care we have. And it's all been rendered in handy-dandy chart form:
Ezra Klein notes: "The issue isn't just that we don't have universal health care. Our delivery system underperforms, too. 'Even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology.'"
Nonetheless, I expect no abatement in the tendency of anti-health care reform wags to bleat, "Bu-bu-but, the United States has the best health care in the world!" That's true, in the same way that José Andrés's Minibar has the best molecular cuisine in Washington, DC -- if your life depends on having it, you'd better have the financial security of Ezekiel Emanuel and Antonin Scalia.