The Affordable Care Act ushered in the biggest change to the health insurance industry in decades. We knew going into 2013 that we were going to have a lot of confused readers trying to understand the complex world of health insurance and the Health Policy law, many for the first time. What could we do to help? It was not our goal to take a position on the law: since it was going into effect, our goal was to help people navigate the changes in the best way possible. Our news plan included consumer-oriented, news-you-can-use stories. The type of news and information had to change as people went from being confused before healthcare.gov launched, to frustrated and angry in the aftermath. Our news coverage was supplemented by a health center that included tools and information designed to help people on every step of their health insurance journey. They included an insurance assessment, insurance cost calculator and state map linking to information about every state Marketplace. We also supplemented our coverage with weekly live events to answer reader questions first hand. The first link included, a Q&A about cancelled health insurance policies, illustrates this approach. In clear language, we explained what it meant, what you needed to do, where you could get help. At the end of the day, this is the information these readers needed most. Other stories kept readers informed about changes to employer plans, and possible scams. Finally, once healthcare.gov was mostly working again, we offered readers tips to help with their enrollment.
