Getting a health insurance quote in America is often a frightening process. Rates have increased significantly, and many Americans have, as a result, found themselves without a viable health insurance plan. Even scouring the Web for free quotes can often lead to dead ends, as even basic plans have prices that are too high for an average or low-earning American to afford. Even then, an affordable quote can sometimes not provide enough coverage to last a year to get a consumer enough treatment that they can fully recover. Annual maximums and co-payments can make even the cost of insured health care prohibitive. It is into this arena that the new version of public health insurance steps and it has a number of functions that it is intended to perform under the new laws, slated to come into full effect in 2014.

The first function, and one that is currently in force, is to function as an alternative for those who do not have or cannot afford health insurance. At the moment, this is taking the form of "high-risk pools" in each of the 50 states, but this will eventually be expanded to fill the same role that a private insurance company would, simply in a public setting. While public health insurance is not intended to replace private health insurance, as it will not have as broad a range of services, it is intended to be a viable and reasonably-priced option for those who simply cannot afford the cost of private health insurance options.

Another function of public health insurance will be to create a system under which no one can be refused care. This facet of the new laws is not slated to come into full effect until 2014, but when it does, no company will be permitted to refuse insurance coverage to anyone on the basis of previous claims history or health records. This will theoretically allow a segment of the market which could not access private health care to do so with greater ease. Although the government does not intend to heavily regulate premium rates, the public health insurance option will remain for those that have conditions which make insurance possible, but prohibitively expensive with private insurance companies.

While the government does intend to make finding a health insurance quote more streamlined, it remains to be seen just how effective these new laws will be and what their overall impact on the landscape of insurance services will look like. For the moment, the new public provisions are providing a way for Americans to find a form of insurance when no other options exist, and the next few years will demonstrate just how effective this new plan is.