The provisions in the health-care bills don’t happen all at once, they’re phased in over several years. The timing of those provisions, should the reforms be enacted, could have a major impact on your future health care decisions.

Most of the big changes, like outlawing preexisting condition clauses and opening the insurance exchanges, don’t take place until 2013 in the House plan, or 2014 in the Senate plan. Some lawmakers are saying that they’d like to see more of those provisions happen sooner. That’s one of the issues that will be addressed when the House and Senate work out the differences in their bills in the conference committee. In fact, Senate amendments have already moved up some of provisions in that bill, such as the tax credits for small businesses.

Here’s a look at when some of the key provisions in the bill take effect—as currently written.