There are now just six weeks left before state-run insurance exchanges are expected to be open for business as mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. The readiness of the technological and educational aspects of this bill, as well as its benefits and risks, remain an ongoing and hotly contested topic. But what isn't debatable is that the costs of implementing and maintaining this bill are going to be staggering.
The following slideshow goes through some of these varying costs: from the general costs to you, the taxpayers, and the U.S. government, to the broader costs to health-benefit providers such as WellPoint (ELV 0.56%), CIGNA (CI), and Aetna (AET), medical-device makers such as Medtronic (MDT 0.09%), and even the jobs market in general.
