"What does the health-care law mean to me?"

In 2008, the Obama campaign put together an online tool to show the effect of their tax proposals on voters. A voter could go to a website and calculate the tax cut they were likely to see if (and when, as it turned out) Obama's plans were put into effect.

The Washington Post has put together a similar tool which will cleanly and clearly show the impact of the health insurance reform bill on any household.

What does the health-care law mean to me?

The health-care overhaul will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors - including income, age, location and family size - will determine how it specifically impacts your life. This tool estimates what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status. - The Washington Post

It is very easy to use, and remarkably simple in its results. For all the posturing over complexity, the actual impact of the bill on the American people will be salutary. Here, for example, is what will happen to me and my family (according to the Post's tool).

There will be no change to your insurance coverage.

If you have children, you will be able to keep them on your insurance until they are 26. If you have adult children who don't have access to health insurance through an employer and are between the ages of 22 and 26, you will be able to put them back on your plan beginning in late September.

You will not pay any additional taxes.

But what about someone who does not get insurance from their employer, and has no insurance? I ran that scenario through the tool as well, using my family as an example (married, employed, with a child). Here was the result.

Beginning in 2014, you will be able to buy health insurance in the new exchange but will not get any subsidies to help with premiums or out-of-pocket expenses.

You are required to have health insurance by 2014. Penalties for not having coverage begin in 2014 at $95 per uninsured dependent and rise by 2016 to $695 per person (up to a maximum of $2,085 per family or 2.5 percent of household income (whichever is higher). After 2016, the penalty would be increased annually by the cost-of-living adjustment.

Many kudos to The Washington Post for this tool, it is the kind of clarifying, interactive journalism that we need in the wake of what passed for debate over the past year.

(With a tip-o-the-hat to Anjan of the LCDC for the link.)