It’s amazing how health care reform, a burning issue six months ago, has fallen off the radar (unless you are sick). Nevertheless, Congress did enact something at the end of all that fighting, and pieces of the legislation will begin to go into effect this month. If you have a family, are self-employed, aging, already Ill, or employed by a small company, you might want to mark your calendar for the dates some of the changes take effect.

As of now: insurance companies can’t drop you if you get sick. Known as “recession,” this was probably the worst part of the old system and it should be gone by now, because all the insurance companies have agreed to stop this practice before it becomes mandatory by law do so.

Small businesses that offer health insurance can start taking a tax credit in 2010, too. This lasts until 2013.

June: Temporary access to Insurance for people with preexisting conditions: Ninety days after the enactment of the legislation, on June 21, 2010, there should be a new program that provides access to insurance for individuals with preexisting conditions who have not had insurance coverage for at least six months. This high risk pool will be available until 2014 when the exchanges come on line. Watch carefully for how much the premiums will cost, and remember that you have to had been uninsured for six months to be eligible.

Also this month businesses that carry retirees on their health insurance will receive government subsidies for 80% of the cost of those premiums, up to a cap of $15,000, So don’t listen to all the griping from corporations about the cost of retiree health insurance. Those costs are shifting to the government.

July: Health and Human Services is required to have a web site with information about what plans are available in each state for individuals and small businesses. Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to understand this information until next March, when rules for how to present the information in a format that allows for easy comparisons will take effect.

September: the law will prohibit plans from excluding coverage for preexisting conditions for children until the age of 19. and children can stay on the family policy until they are 26. This happens September 23.

Also in September look for coverage for immunization and prevention services with no co-pays.

And here’s a big one: starting in September health insurance companies will have to report how much of your premium they spend on your care. This will be available on the internets, and must be 85% if you are in a large company plan and 80% for small companies and individuals. Behind the scenes, the lobbyists are wildly trying to help write the rules for what counts as care. This is a slimy business right now because it directly affects the insurance company’s profits.

Don’t tune out on all of this now, because the devil is in the details and although you may have gone on to worrying about the oil spill and the financial reform, you can be assured the health industry lobbyists have not. They are still hard at work trying to undermine reform even more assiduously.

If we do nothing about health care reform:

Up to 17 million more people will be uninsured by 2019 than today.

The average family’s health care costs will nearly double by 2020, from $13,000 to $24,000

— meaning they’ll be paying a quarter of their income toward health care costs.

Insurers can continue the massive and arbitrary premium rate increases we’ve heard about

recently — such as Anthem Blue Cross raising rates for customers in California by nearly

40%, and rates in Illinois going up by as much as 60%.

As many as 275,000 people could die prematurely over the next 10 years because they

don’t have health insurance.

Health care costs will take up a staggering amount of our national budget. In 1960, it was 5

percent of gross domestic product (GDP), last year it was 17 percent. Costs will reach 21

percent of our economy by 2020 if we fail to act.

Rapidly rising costs will make it harder for employers — particularly small businesses — to

provide quality health insurance to employees, leading many to drop coverage or shift to

plans that cover less.

Even those who have insurance today will be less secure, and more likely to lose coverage if

they switch jobs or lose their job due to rising costs on the individual market or being

denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

Although this information comes from the Organizing for America site, there’s nothing controversial about this fact set.

Why is it that when discussing the need for health care reform, it seems to boil down to a simplistic formula on both sides of the debate? Over and over again, I hear the same tired arguments; namely, that any sort of reformation of our health care system will lead to socialism and the ruination of the American way of life or conversely, that health care reform must lead to a single-payer system controlled and administered by the federal government.

Let’s start with this: health care reform is not an either/or proposition with extremes as options. What we have right now is a system that is unfair, uneven, overpriced, and is crippling any possible true economic growth in this country.

If we are to have a real debate over how to reform health care, let’s start by exploding the myths about it coming from both sides of the aisle.

Myth #1: Universal access to health care is the same thing as single-payer health care

Of course this isn’t true. Having access to health care is a human right and a civic responsibility. Note carefully: I did not say having access to government-paid health care. Nor did I say access to employer-paid health care. What I said was that access to health care is a human right, and it is. I don’t know a conservative, liberal, libertarian, or independent alive who would see someone bleeding in the street and leave them there without at least calling an ambulance so they could get medical care and attention. Why? Because as human beings, all politics aside, we understand that when we are ill or injured, we need professional health care providers to intervene and help us heal. That isn’t political; it’s human. The issue has never centered around whether the sick or injured should be cared for; it has centered around who pays for that care.

We live in a nation where access to health care services is selective. If one is employed by an employer who still offers health insurance, there is access. If one is independently wealthy, whether insured or not, there is access. However, those who are unemployed or unable to work do not have access to providers or medications, particularly the group that I call the “unemployed middle class”, of which I am one.

Creating a pathway for everyone to have access to health care should be something every conservative embraces, because it could take the primary burden away from business and place it on the individual, if it’s structured properly and fairly.

Myth #2: Health care reform will destroy capitalism

This one always amazes me. On the payer side of the equation, if the responsibility shifts from employer to individuals with cost containment measures in place to limit out-of-pocket costs, we have not suddenly become a nation of socialists. Anyone who really believes that should have a close look at what socialism is before saying such a thing. Regulating health care is not the same as public ownership or administration.

Myth #3: Health care reform can be achieved without tort reform

Ask any health care provider and they’ll tell you that it cannot. The ones who win now are the lawyers. Malpractice insurance is crippling providers and hospitals, and services are rendered with attention to the lawsuit rather than the patient. Tort reform has to be at the center of any reform effort, and shouldn’t be ignored or minimized by either party.

Myth #4: Electronic Health Records (EHR) will streamline health care

This is a myth right now, because all proposals on the table do not require an open standard for records portability. There is a real danger that if this is not done properly, it will cost American taxpayers far more than it will save. Congress, take heed. This cannot be ignored or made into a political issue.

Myth #5: Health care should be managed by individual states

This is the least effective and most discriminatory way to manage health care, and most importantly, it places an undue burden on states offering broader access than the minimum. Right now, each state sets their own criteria for access to health care reform, subject to very broad federal standards. Those criteria include how pre-existing conditions are treated, who can get insurance, brackets for determining who is eligible for Medicaid, and expansion of current COBRA requirements. As a result, one can be covered for pre-existing conditions in Minnesota but not in California. It follows that Minnesota’s population will include many who, driven by the need for affordable health care, migrate to that state because they are able to get it there.

We are a nation of people who need to deal with the very real possibility that our economy will stagnate and die if we do not wrestle with the question of health care reform, accept that it will require an investment of taxpayer dollars, and begin to talk about the best ways to accomplish what must be done.

Health care reform must be a national standard. Access has to be universal and yes, required for every United States citizen. Reforming health care means that businesses, particularly small businesses, will be able to survive and thrive as the foundation of a new, more solid and secure economy. Survival of small business is a closely-held conservative value that should serve as the foundation of a place to agree on health care reform, rather than a reason not to reform it at all.