The new federal Web site that is supposed to help you look for health coverage options has just gone live. It’s called HealthCare.gov, and it is run by the Department of Health and Human Services. You can find it at — guess where? — www.healthcare.gov.

Under the new law, HHS was supposed to set up this Web site by July 1 as a temporary measure to help people find health coverage in their area. In the book, this is covered in Chapter 8 (“While You’re Waiting …”), page 99. But the book doesn’t have the Web address, because it didn’t exist yet when we went to press.

At a quick glance, the site looks pretty slick, with easy-to-understand options and questions to guide you to the right choices. You can look up health insurance plans in your area, link to your state’s Medicaid Web site (which may have a lot more jargon, unfortunately), and even find out if there’s a community health center than can help you if you need low-cost medical care.

However, don’t expect too much. The site is clearly meant to give you basic information on your coverage choices. It’s not the “Expedia of health care” that the new health insurance exchanges are supposed to be when they begin in 2014. For example, you won’t find pricing information on this site yet, although HHS is trying to collect it so it can be posted in October. It’s also possible that this site won’t have the complete list of plans in your area. I just tried to look up my family’s own individual insurance plan, a perfectly good CareFirst plan in Silver Spring, Maryland. The site listed three CareFirst options, but not my plan.

Still, it’s no small accomplishment that HHS was able to get even a basic site up and running by the deadline. It is bound to improve over time. And it can be a good starting point for your research if you need to find health coverage quickly.

If you use it, though, your best bet is to start with this site and then do more research on your own. You’ll have to do that anyway, since the information on your local health insurance plans will be very limited. Start with what you see on the site, and if you see a promising health plan, go to that insurance company’s Web site for more information. And while you’re there, look for other options they may have, because there may be more than the ones listed on the HHS site.

And remember, most of the new protections you are supposed to get under the law have not started yet. Some will start in September, while others will not begin until 2014. If you can hold out until Sept. 23, you probably will have an easier time getting accepted for coverage under some of the new rules. But the biggest changes, the ones that might really make the system work better, will not come together until 2014.