Whether they loved the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”), loathed it, or just didn’t know what to make of it, MONEY readers in 2013 knew that the way they paid for health care was changing. With the first deadline for signing up for the new insurance exchanges slated for the end of the year, readers wanted to know how the system might affect them, whether plans would be affordable, and what would happen to their current coverage and access to doctors. In “The Future of Your Health Care,” a three-part series, writer Amanda Gengler tuned out the partisan arguments and focused on the real story for most Americans: Enormous changes are coming, and this is what you can expect.
The first story, “The Massachusetts Experiment,” is a close look at how health care reform has played out in the Bay State, which in 2006 passed a law similar to the Affordable Care Act. Gengler identifies six key ways the Massachusetts law has affected the local health care system—and explains what the state’s experience augurs for the rest of the country. The story is grounded in Gengler’s in-depth reporting on real consumers, local employers, and health care providers. This is not an abstract policy analysis, but a richly detailed picture of change while it’s happening. Most Americans, of course, already have insurance through their jobs and won’t have to do anything about the ACA in 2014. Even so, their insurance coverage is likely to evolve over the coming years because of the same rising health care costs that shaped Obamacare. And the ACA is subtly changing how employer health plans work.
In “Worker, Heal Thyself,” Gengler explains why your health plan has been pushing more and more of your health care costs back on you, and what you can do about it.
Finally, in “Obamacare: Game (Really) On,” published just before the start date for the exchanges, Gengler answers 12 pressing questions about the rollout. She busts some myths (only some individual insurance customers will experience “rate shock,” while others will save), explains some head scratchers (how will the subsidies work?), and even sees around the corner (she warns about the growing concern that the exchanges would not be ready). It’s a story that delivers on MONEY’s core mission: to make the most perplexing personal financial choices clearer.