Obamacare Exchanges Open: The New Law, Explained in 7 Easy Steps

President Obama watched his mother dying of cancer, on the hospital bed under piles of papers, while battling not just the disease but the insurance-company lawyers who had dropped her when she got sick. This compelled him to take the massive political risks needed to create and pass the Affordable Care Act.

He did not want to see this happen to the people that you love. Your mother, your wife, husband, children, grandmother—  all are now protected. Sick people should be fighting the disease, not their insurance company.

The rampant insurance-company abuses called "recisions" became illegal from the moment Obamacare passed. Previously, if a patient got sick, the insurance companies would find a way to drop him or her. But now, Obamacare includes the Patient's Bill of Rights, which will be there if a surprise illness hits, or an insurance company tries to drop you and decides to stick you with an unpaid $300,000 hospital bill.

As health care costs skyrocketed by more than 9% a year, swallowing up 19% of the economy and around $850 billion in taxpayer money, President Obama sought to address the crisis and carry out massive cost-cutting measures in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Nonetheless, there's still widespread confusion over what the law entails. These videos of President Obama will help you fully understand it. You may watch these explanations and also find targeted and simplified information at healthcare.gov. Before learning more, or viewing the videos, find your state insurance marketplace using the state exchange finder.

Please share this article in any place you can, in order to help inform the people you care about most, so that they can go to the marketplaces and save money too.

1. Overview: President Obama Explains Key Elements Of the Law in Four Minutes

Protections, cost cutting measures, and the goal of reaching universal care are described.  However, after this video was made the Obama administration axed the idea of including a public option to drive further competition. There is no public option under Obamacare. There is no new government-run health insurance option. Instead, the president chose to bring more private insurance options into each state. Some states only had one or two options before, which squelched competition by creating monopolies. Many of those same states will now have 12 companies competing for your business by offering lower prices, side-by-side, on the health insurance exchanges. Click here to find your state exchange.

Obamacare also allows each state to scrap the national law and apply its own plan to reach the goals of universal coverage and lowering costs. All a state has to do is submit a credible plan and the federal government will fund it, something 14 states have already done. For example, Vermont will be the only state in the country that chose a 100% single-payer health care system statewide. In the 49 other states, only private insurance plans are available.

2. President Obama's September 26, 2013 Address On the Affordable Care Act

3. President Obama and Bill Clinton Explain Why the Law is Crucially Important, and Respond to Their Harshest Critics

4. Obamacare is Focused On Covering the Uninsured and Slashing Costs to Save You Money

Implementation is already complete for those who already have insurance. 

View a complete timeline of implementation.

5. The Financial Necessity Of Health Care Reform

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act would take us back to the previous system where costs were skyrocketing. In this 2009 video, President Obama explains why we needed reform in the first place.

6. President Obama Explains the Plan to Help Small Businesses Through Health Care Reform

For a complete understanding of how small businesses are affected, visit the Small Business Resource Page. The fastest job creators in the country are businesses with fewer than 25 employees. Each of those businesses will now get a 50% tax credit towards health care costs that will help them dramatically ramp up hiring. Click to read about the small business tax credits.

7. How to Find More Videos and Clear-Cut Information

Are you still afraid, or confused about the Affordable Care Act?  Well, if you already have insurance, almost every part of Obamacare that affects you is already in place. You are done. You can stop worrying now. When state insurance exchanges come online Tuesday, you may search for cheaper insurance that may work for you. Your choice.

The White House has organized every speech on health care reform into one playlist on YouTube. You can watch small business owners get their questions answered, nurses, and hundreds of videos of the president explaining everything that is in the law. 

To continue your adventure, scan the playlist and explore your interests. View the White House health care playlist. Watch President Obama explain what he's doing on each health care-related issue with his playlist of weekly addresses. Or go to the definitive source on the health care reform, healthcare.gov.

And finally, please share this article with as many people as you can.