Southern California has been operating a health exchange for more than 15 years and currently serves some 150,000 members and 12.000 employers. Based on this highly functional model and the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 by Congress, the new California Health Insurance Exchange is expected to become operational in 2012. The concept is that this program will work in a similar fashion to the insurance comparison shopping sites that you can already find online.
The California Insurance Exchange Is a Lot Like An Online Comparison Site
People use these sites to help them look at a wide selection of medical insurance providers and compare their policies, coverages and prices before buying their medical insurance. In theory the California Health Insurance Exchange will function in much the same way and make it possible for everyone without insurance to be able to find affordable medical insurance to meet the mandatory medical insurance requirements as found in the new Affordable Care Act.