America’s biggest questions about Obamacare: what is it, and how do I sign up

Last week, I wrote about how America’s most searched Obamacare questions have changed over the past five years.

It’s also possible to splice the Google search data by state — and that also shows some interesting geographic splits in what Americans want to know about the health reform law.

For most of 2015, Americans had one big question on their minds: What the heck is this law? In 36 states, the most searched question was some version of “What is Obamacare?” or “What is the Affordable Care Act?”

A handful of other states had leading questions that were about enrollment: In Missouri the top searched question this year has been “How to get Obamacare?” In Maryland, it’s “How much is Obamacare?”

But the story starts to shift when you just look at the time leading up to open enrollment. This map shows the most searched questions in October 2015, right before open enrollment began on November 1, 2015. This map represents a much smaller volume of search, since it’s only one month, but also shows much more interest in the nuts-and-bolts of enrollment.

The questions get much more varied, too, when you focus on the month leading up to open enrollment. There were lots of questions about when open enrollment begins in October and the cost. The most searched question in Alaska, for example, was, “What is the minimum income to qualify for Obamacare?” In Virginia it was, “What happens if I move under Obamacare?”

You can see the full list of the most searched questions in October below.