Clark gets calls every week about how to shop for and buy affordable health care insurance. In many cases, the callers are self-employed or the owners of small businesses. CareerJournal.com had a good article about this very topic, and Clark wants to share that with you. The Feds have put together a glossary of definitions that help you navigate through this confusing industry. For instance, you may have heard of POS plan, or you want to know what HMO and PPO really mean. This list tells you all of that. You can find it at ahrq.gov/consumer. Another one Clark really likes is ehealthinsurance.com. Clark believes it is the best site for shopping for health care insurance. Another one that has gained popularity is healthchoices.org. Clark had not heard of this site, but it’s supposedly very good for deciding whether a provider is okay. Also, you may know that each state establishes its own mandates for health plans and what they must cover. It’s different in every state, and insurers go bonkers trying to figure out how one state requires something but another doesn’t. Health insurance costs are influenced somewhat by these state mandates. But there is a guide on the Internet showing you what each state must cover. That site is called healthinsuranceinfo.net. The exception is if you work for a large employer, in which case none of the state mandates are relevant. That’s because these employers don’t provide you with health insurance; they provide you with health coverage. It’s what’s known as a “self-insured plan.” Employers with 1,000 or more employees are almost always self-insured. So, the state rules do not matter, Instead the plans are governed by a federal act known as ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). Under that plan, the employer can cover whatever it wants and change the health plan at any time. The states can’t say anything about it. If Clark were the emperor of health care coverage, he would end state control of health care coverage and create federal standards. We need some form of national or international system that is easier to understand and uniform. It would offer a certain number of policies and the consumer chooses how much coverage he or she wants based on how much you’re willing to pay.