News release: “…the Department of Health and Human Services updated the HealthCare.gov Insurance Finder with more information on private insurance plans. Created under the Affordable Care Act, www.HealthCare.gov was launched July 1, 2010, and is the first website of its kind to bring information about private and public health coverage options into one place to make it easy for consumers to learn about and compare their insurance choices. HealthCare.gov and its Insurance Finder are critical new tools for consumers, making the health insurance market more transparent than it has ever been. On October 1, the Insurance Finder added price estimates for private insurance policies for individuals and families, allowing consumers to easily compare health insurance plans – putting consumers, not their insurance companies, in charge and taking much of the guesswork and confusion out of buying insurance. Insurance companies are also required to include two notable metrics never before made public:

• The percentage of people who applied for insurance and were denied coverage.
• The percentage of applicants who were charged higher premiums because of their health status.”