If you keep your current plan

Current plans don't have to higher benefit standards of new policies, unless the insurer makes significant changes in benefits or cost-sharing. Within six months, the plans will have to stop some practices, like setting lifetime limits on coverage and canceling policy holders who get sick. They will also have to allow children to stay on their parents’ policies until they turn 26, unless a child's employer offers health insurance. Plans that include coverage of children cannot deny coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Starting in 2014, insurers cannot deny coverage because of a person’s medical condition or charge higher premiums because of a person’s sex or health status. All new plans have to offer a minimum package of benefits defined by the federal government, including certain preventive services without any costs.

Insurers will have to pay a 40 percent excise tax on high-value group plans – those in which premiums for families are $27,500 or more, for instance – starting in 2018. Experts say the tax will likely be passed on to employees through higher premiums or lower benefits and wages.

Starting in 2013, flexible spending accounts, which allow users to escape taxes on many medical expenses now, will be limited. There will be a $2,500 maximum on accounts that typically carry $4,000 or $5,000 limits now, and you will no longer be able to use the accounts for over-the-counter medicines.