Obamacare ... okay to call it that?

Yes. The name used to have a negative vibe, but the President has since owned it.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act = PPACA = ACA = Obamacare = "the health-care law"

None of these in particular imply that you love or hate Barack Obama or intend to support or subvert the law.

What does it do for people?

Obamacare does not mandate that anyone bend over. This is a playful sodomy reference. (RebeccaCook/Reuters) Obamacare does not mandate that anyone bend over. This is a playful sodomy reference. (RebeccaCook/Reuters)

The stated purpose is to "increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care." The most widely relevant and talked-about parts are that no one will be excluded from getting insurance, and everyone will have to get insurance.

Insurance companies can't refuse to cover people like they used to, and they can't revoke coverage when people get sick. People won't be forced to pay extra for insurance because of pre-existing conditions. There will be a limit on how much insurance companies can legally profit, and they will eventually have to cover all kinds of preventive care.

Those things, among other measures aimed at containing U.S. health care spending, which was $2.6 trillion last year ...

This law passed three years ago. It doesn't feel like much has changed.

Changes are rolling out over a ten-year period. So far, things have mostly affected insurance companies and the industry side. Increases in health care spending have (coincidentally?) slowed since 2010.

The most disputed part of the law -- the "individual mandate" that requires "most Americans to have "minimum essential health insurance coverage" (the part that drove the ACA to the Supreme Court last Spring, where it was upheld) -- goes into effect in January 2014.

45 million Americans don't have health insurance, though. How are so many people supposed to get it by 2014?

First, state and federal governments are setting up exchanges. That will start in October.

What are exchanges?

Exchanges are markets where small businesses and people can shop for insurance and compare prices and benefits. They'll be on web sites.

Well, what if people still can't afford it?

People with "moderate" incomes can get money/discounts from the federal government to help pay for insurance. People with "low" incomes will get their care from Medicaid. More people than ever before will qualify for Medicaid. People who make less than $15,856 (or $26,951 for a family of three) will qualify. As you've heard, Medicaid is expanding, but the federal government is leaving it up to states to decide whether to accept that expansion. The Supreme Court upheld the ACA, but it limited the federal government's ability to enforce expansion, so it's up to states.

Is my state expanding Medicaid?

Here is where we stand as of last week.

The Advisory Board Company

What about undocumented immigrants?