ObamaCareFacts.com is Restructuring our Site

We at ObamaCareFacts.com have been writing about the ACA since 2012. A lot has changed since then. Given all the changes we are in the process of updating our site. Thus, if you are wondering “where is all that great ObamaCareFacts.com content,” the answer is “we are busy making the site great for 2018 and haven’t been able to get as much fresh content up in the meantime.” 🙂

Here is a rundown of the backstory and plan in bullet-point form:

• In 2012 there were different criteria for what a website should be and look like. We did our best as a small team.
• As the ACA grew and we grew, we hired a developer, hired some writers, and updated the site.
• Here in 2017, what had worked in the past isn’t necessarily meeting the standards of the modern era. Thus, it is time for an update for 2018.
• Not only that, but with Trump’s election our focus on “ObamaCare” has become less and less effective. In the past people didn’t know the term “Affordable Care Act” so we reached them by telling them about “ObamaCare,” today things are changing. Obama is no longer President, and we are struggling to compete with other sites who still use the term.
• With all these changes, we have to change too.

Moving forward we will be implementing the following changes:

• Implementing Google AMP so there is an option for low bandwidth and quick page loading (for those who have limited access to the internet).
• Site resign. We currently use a three column layout. Can you name a popular site with a three column layout? I can’t think of one off the top of my head. We will likely be moving to a two column layout more inline with modern sites. That is one example of the redesign ideas we have. The goal will be to make the site less code intensive, less cluttered, and more user friendly.
• Reorganization of our links. 5 years of writing about healthcare every day has produced a ton of quality links… many of those links have gone in the sidebar, some are essentially only relevant as historical documents at this point. We feel this is overwhelming to users, so we will be reworking the navigation to ensure usability.
• A focus on other aspects of healthcare and proper names. At one point talking primarily about ObamaCare (and later TrumpCare) seemed to work well, moving forward we will aim to use proper names, so Affordable Care Act instead of ObamaCare for example.
• Working with our ad partners to clean up our ads. Since we are redesigning and reorganizing the site, we feel the ads need an update too.
• Shorter and more focused pages. In the past we felt that what we could offer over other sites was complete information without the restraints that many other entities face. HealthCare.Gov can only tell you part of the story (there is no room for opinions or a discussion of politics there), major news media have word limits for their author and are focused on the news of the day, a broker is a broker, an insurer an insurer, a political think tank is often biased toward their own view, a politician or political group is bias toward their view, a fact-check site only fact-checks. Meanwhile, we found this great middle-ground where we could cover all of those details and angles. Covering all those details resulted in some really long and perhaps overly complete pages. We can’t magically change our writing style, but moving forward we will aim to create simple and straight forward pages on the major aspects of healthcare. The days of long pages aren’t over, but there will be a focus on ensuring we have lots of straight forward and to-the-point content.

That is the basic game plan. If you have any ideas of how we can make the site better, we are happy to hear them. Feel free to comment below.

For anyone who has stuck with us over the years, you are much appreciated. There were some ups and downs, but we made it to this point with tens of millions covered and have avoided a full repeal. We as a site have seen better days, I feel like the ACA has seen more hopeful times, but we are all still here.

Time to brush our shoulders off and make this site great again for 2018!