While I certainly thinking that reading the health care bill is an important, worthwhile thing to do, I also realize that 1,990 pages is a lot, especially since the text isn’t really written for reading as much as it is code for changing U.S. laws. You can read and comment on the full House health care bill here on OpenCongress, but in case you don’t have the time, I wanted to point out these two extremely helpful summaries that have been made available by the House Energy and Commerce Committee:

1) Affordable Health Care for America Act, Detailed Summary. This is a 10-page PDF written in plain language that goes over all the bill’s main provisions in pretty good detail. If you know this document, you’ll have a really good understanding of what’s in the bill and how it works.

2) Affordable Health Care for America Act, Section by Section. This is a 61-page document, written in plain English, that goes over every single Division, Title, Subtitle and section in the bill. Short of drafting errors and any sneaky loopholes (both important reason to read the bill!) this document tells you everything that’s in the 1,990-page legislation.