You’ve heard a lot about the possible health care reform and what it might change as far as our expectations of the government’s role in our lives; but let’s breakdown some of the things you may miss in the news.

I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill

The many faces of Bill

In all the heated debate about the principles behind the possible reform, it gets overlooked that there are actually three popular bills brewing, not one. The three big players are the House bill, the Senate Health bill and the Senate Finance bill.

The House bill H.R.3200 was proposed by the House Democrats (the Ways and Means committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Committee on Education and Labor) in July. As you may be able to guess, it is considered the most liberal of the three, which makes it less popular around the political table.

The Senate Health Bill is also called the HELP bill, the Kennedy-Dodd bill and the Affordable Health Choices Act. It was drafted by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. This one gets a good bit of attention for being a tad more conservative, and has similarities to the Finance bill. However it is considered less likely to be made law.

The Senate Finance bill goes by many names because it is the most recently reviewed and discussed of the three bills. One common name is the Baucus bill because of Sen. Max Baucus’ role in its inception and defense. It is also called the America’s Healthy Future Act and, simply, the Senate bill or Finance bill. This is the favored bill to be adopted due to its more bipartisan nature and approval by the Congressional Budget Office, which calculates how feasible and expensive proposals will be if enacted.

Now for some True or False to keep you up to date on some controversies related to the bills:

True or False? The health care reform bill will partially offset costs by taxing sweetened drinks like chocolate milk, Pepsi, and fruit juice drinks

False: Even though Katie Couric and the LA Times like to talk about the outrage and reasoning for a so-called soda tax, it actually isn’t part of any current HCR bills. Most of the confusion came from a comment President Obama made during an interview for Men’s Health. “It is true, though, that if you wanted to make a big impact on people’s health in this country, reducing things like soda consumption would be helpful,” he said. There has, however, been no mention of an excise tax on sugary drinks, cigarettes or junk food in relation to the reform bills since July.

True or False? Health insurance will be mandatory for citizens, and failure to purchase it will result in a “fee” of thousands of dollars

True (mostly): The President put his foot in his mouth in a recent interview with ABC. He insisted the “individual mandate” to purchase health coverage is not in any way, shape or form a tax. Oops! In the Finance bill the term “fee” was replaced with “tax” this week. It is indeed an excise (sin) tax on healthcare-nonconformists, expected to start in 2013.

Each of the bills includes a penalty for not purchasing insurance. In the House bill it is a penalty of 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income up to the cost of the average national premium for self-only or family coverage under a basic plan in the Health Insurance Exchange. For the Health bill, the penalty is to be no more than $750. In the Finance bill it’s between $750 and $950 annually depending on income and granting some exemptions for American Indians, inability to pay and religious objection (these exemptions are in all three bills).The maximum tax per family would be $3800. If you hear the number $25,000 floating around, it refers to what the IRS may go after from people who don’t purchase insurance and don’t pay the tax.

True or False? Our taxes are going to go through the roof

Depends entirely on who you ask: Thanks to USA Today for this breakdown:

Under the House bill a family earning more than $350,000 a year and an individual earning more than $280,000 a year would pay an income surtax: 1 percent for families with income between $350,000 and $500,000; 1.5 percent for between $500,000 and $1,000,000; and 5.4 percent for income greater than $1,000,000.

Under the Health bill, there’s nothing too interesting because the committee does not have jurisdiction over taxes, so it did not include solid proposals to pay for its bill.

The Finance bill would cut $507 billion from government health programs and raise $349 billion in new taxes and fees on health care sectors, including a 35 percent tax on insurers for “Cadillac” plans that cost more than $8,000 per individual or $21,000 per family.

Thanks for playing! Don’t bother scoring yourself on the quiz, just keep informed as there may be more changes before they go on to the next stage.