Despite the year-long effort to pass major health care reform in this country, very few people seem to actually know what provisions are in the legislation which passed last night. No surprise, everyone is still very opinionated on what they think they know, from folks who think that everyone now has free health care to the folks who think we now live in a government controlled police-state. I’ve tried to highlight as many points as I can below, comment if I missed anything.

• People earning up to 133% of the Federal Poverty line will be eligible for medicaid, insuring an estimated 16 million people.
• 24 million people who do not get health insurance through their workplaces should be able to buy into private insurance. This is based on a system of tax credits and state-based exchanges.
• Starting in 2014 individuals will be mandated to provide proof of insurance, facing a fine of at least $750. Companies of at least 50 employees who do not provide adequate coverage will also face significant fines. (These numbers will change with reconciliation)
• Cuts $120 billion over next 10 years from Medicare Advantage.
• Parents may keep their children on their health insurance plan until they are 26 years old.
• In six months, all new private insurance plans will have to cover the full cost of preventive care, including annual physicals and children’s immunizations.
• Insurers will no longer be able to require prior approval for trips to emergency rooms or gynecologists.
• Children with medical conditions will no longer be denied coverage.
• Insurers will be barred from imposing lifetime limits on benefits and from dropping people when they file a claim.
• Will provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs for the low-income elderly.
• Tax credits will be available for families earning up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level to ensure that the cost of their health care premiums does not exceed 9.5 percent of their income
• Imposes a 40 percent excise tax on many generous employer provided insurance plans, Union members do not have a broad exemption.
• Imposes a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for high earning families.
• “Combined with the Senate bill, the package would increase the overall cost of expanding insurance coverage to $940 billion over the next decade. But the two measures combined would also lower budget deficits by $143 billion by 2019.” [CBO and Washington Post]

Of course changes can still happen and implementation always has uncertainty. There are many aspects of this bill that can’t be summarized, try to find out for yourself if you can