What's in the health care bill?

Here are some links for more information about the health care bill ->

I found this chart online and I think it's really useful to show you who gets what:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-healthcare-passage22-2010mar22-g,0,7818440.graphic

This is from speaker Pelosi's website, so I assume it's prolly got a fair share of rah rah rah, but it does seem to be a very comprehensive guide:
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0361

Here's a bit of info on the exchanges from Ezra Klein's blog:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_do_the_exchanges_work.html

Speaking of Klein, he's got a series of posts explaining the bill all tagged with "explaining health-care reform." You can find his intro column here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/a_bill_becomes_a_law.html

The bottom line is that this bill is far less than many of us wanted. I badly wanted the Medicare age to be dropped to 55. Hell, I'd like to see Medicare for all-also known as Socialized Medicine, but it wasn't going to happen. But, as so many have said, it's a start. It will help those most in need and begin (hopefully) to change the health insurance dynamic in this country from one of have vs have not, to a more equitable program.

My other frustration with the bill is process related, since Republicans decided to oppose the bill unilaterally, we didn't get any benefit from an honest give and take discussion between conservatives, liberals and moderates. Instead we got screams about killing Grandma, Death Panels and Socialist Tyranny. It's funny (sad) that this is the sort of bill that past Republican politicians could have written. It's damn near Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care plan, and similar to what Nixon proposed back in the 70's. But now Republican leaders are beholden to their extreme right wing so this pretty moderate plan is demonized.

In the end, it will help those who really need it and keep the insurance companies from denying people coverage. Those are two very worthwhile goals.