Health Care Industry Scrambling To Make Transition To Obamacare

DENVER (CBS4) - A year from now everyone in the nation will be required to have health insurance under Obamacare. In Colorado that means the health care industry and state officials are scrambling to make the transition easy for consumers.

Next October people will be able to start choosing their options and learning what it will cost.

"I think one of the big things coming down the road in 2012 is going to be this Health Insurance Exchange where people are able to purchase and compare insurance plans," Dede de Percin with the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative said.

Part of the challenge for advocates is to reach Coloradans across the state -- from small rural communities to city dwellers.

"How they will be able to hopefully find more affordable health plans and have more options," Lisa Ritland with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) said.

On HealthCare.gov there's an example of what the Colorado sign up process might look like. It takes users step-by-step, asking questions and allowing the user to customize their answers to then be matched with the best healthcare plan at the most affordable price.

Right now it's estimated that there are 800,000 people in Colorado who don't have health insurance. The hope is that under Obamacare that number will drop to 300,000.

In the next year people can expect to be bombarded with information from health care providers and health care plans tying to make it easier to choose health care coverage.