Tester: New website gives Montanans more power to take charge of their health care

Montanans can browse all insurance options at healthcare.gov

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) –A new, easy-to-use health care website launched today expands consumers’ options and will empower Montanans to take more control over their health care.

Senator Jon Tester said the new site, healthcare.gov, is a powerful online clearinghouse for health care options.  The website offers consumers several tools, including:

• One-stop shopping for health insurance: the first website to let consumers browse customized private and public health insurance options
• Price comparison: the site will soon list immediate price estimates for all insurance options
• Patients’ Bill of Rights: the new consumer protections guaranteed under the health care reform law, like an end to discrimination based on preexisting medical conditions, and a ban on insurance companies dropping coverage because of illness

“As the new health care law takes effect, folks in Montana will keep seeing more ways that it is fixing our broken system,” Tester said.  “This new website is a big next step toward holding insurance companies accountable and giving consumers more control over their own health care decisions.”

Additional consumer tools will soon be added to the website, including specific information for each insurance company on what percentage of premiums is spent on things other than health care.

Healthcare.gov was launched as a requirement of health care reform.  Other parts of the law have already been implemented, including provisions to provide valuable tax credits for small businesses who insure their employees and steps toward closing the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" for seniors.

The new law also slows the rise in health care costs, bans insurance companies from capping coverage, protects veterans’ benefits, and allows young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.