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Sharecare Names Top 10 Social HealthMakers for Affordable Care Act

Affordable Care Act

List Reveals Web’s Most Influential Obamacare Experts Across the Political Spectrum

ATLANTA, October 15, 2013 – Regardless of your political point of view, it’s likely you have questions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), especially with the online health exchanges opening their virtual doors earlier this month and the recent government shutdown. To help Americans better understand ACA and how it affects them individually, Sharecare, the leading online health and wellness engagement platform founded by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, has named its Top 10 Social HealthMakers on the Affordable Care Act, a list of the foremost pundits, policy analysts and journalists leading online conversations about the new healthcare law.

As of 2012, 48 million Americans were uninsured, and with 62% of personal bankruptcies due to health-related and hospital bills, universal insurance coverage is a hotly debated topic. Whether you are seeking insurance or already have coverage, or find yourself leaning to the left or right of the political debate at hand, Sharecare’s Top 10 Social HealthMakers can help put ACA into a context that’s personally relevant to you. Sharecare’s ACA experts include:

  1. Ezra Klein – The Washington Post
    A columnist at The Washington Post who manages Wonkblog and serves as a contributor both to MSNBC and Bloomberg, Klein focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as healthcare-specific topics.
  2. Sam Baker – The Hill
    Previously an associate editor for FDA Week and Inside Health Reform, Baker is a staff writer at The Hill where he covers topics relating to health care, politics and the Supreme Court.
  3. Michael F. Cannon – National Review & Cato Institute
    Cannon is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies and is a writer for National Review, a news outlet providing reporting, commentary and opinion from a conservative perspective.
  4. Tom Howell, Jr. – The Washington Times
    Howell is a politics reporter for The Washington Times, and covers general assignment topics on Capitol Hill with a focus on healthcare and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
  5. Caroline May – The Daily Caller
    Previously a policy analyst at the National Center for Public Policy Research, May is a public policy reporter at The Daily Caller, a politically conservative news and opinion website.
  6. Erick Erickson – RedState
    Erickson is a well-known conservative blogger, serving as editor-in-chief of the blog RedState. He also hosts a weekday radio show on WSB-AM.
  7. Paul Krugman – The New York Times
    Often referred to as “the most important political columnist in America,” Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and a Centenary Professor at the London School of Economies. He has written and edited dozens of books and several hundred articles, primarily about international trade and international finance.
  8. Ethan Rome – The Huffington Post
    A liberal grassroots and labor activist for more than 25 years, Rome is executive director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and a reporter for The Huffington Post.
  9. Sarah Kliff – The Washington Post
    Having written for Politico, Newsweek, National Geographic, BBC and Humanities magazine, among others, Kliff is a reporter covering health policy for The Washington Post.
  10. Elise Viebeck – The Hill
    Viebeck is a staff writer for The Hill where she covers health policy for the site’s HealthWatch blog. She also has appeared on C-SPAN to offer insight into government and healthcare-related issues.

More information about the Top 10 Social HealthMakers on the Affordable Care Act can be found at
www.sharecare.com/static/top-ten-social-healthmakers-affordable-care-act

Methodology: Sharecare Social HealthMakers are among the most influential people in health and wellness on the web, driving conversations on the leading edge of many health topics. They address a wide range of issues within specific topic areas while demonstrating consistent impact across multiple interactive channels—such as Twitter, Facebook, videos and blogs. This impact is measured through a proprietary algorithm based on more than 100 individual metrics developed and powered by WCG, the leading digital marketing and communications agency, quantifying topic relevance, syndication, presence and reach. Earlier Sharecare lists have identified Social HealthMakers in weight loss, infertility, heart disease, fitness, Alzheimer’s disease and more.

About Sharecare

Sharecare is a health and wellness social engagement platform that helps people to live healthier lives by connecting them to personalized resources including high-quality information from national experts, interactive tools and local healthcare providers. The power behind the site is its groundbreaking and popular, scientifically-based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, taken by more than 30 million people since its inception in 1998, and a unique, social Q&A format that provides the collective wisdom of America’s top experts—greatly simplifying the search for health information. Created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications, Sharecare allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice—simply said, sharing care. Launched in 2010, Sharecare is based in Atlanta, GA.

About WCG

Founded and led by chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, WCG is focused on integrated business solutions in the areas of innovation, change and growth for the world’s leading companies and brands. WCG serves clients through a network of offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los Angeles and London. For more than a decade, WCG’s seasoned professionals have specialized in providing analytics, content, engagement and strategy to a diverse set of clients across the consumer, technology, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

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