From the December 15 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Like I say, I know why you think that because of so many people who are not paying income taxes a lot of people think they are getting something for free and a lot of people think we're going to do all this for you. The problem is that whatever is going to be done for people will not start for 4 years. The tax increases that are in this bill -- and its basically a tax increase bill will start immediately but all the so called freebees and all the people who don't have insurance getting insurance is not going to even start until 2013 or 2014. And this bill is going to tax everybody, people who are married, people who are not married, at every income level people are going to face added taxation long before whatever the benefits are.

Fact: Numerous benefits from Senate health care bill would “be available in the first year after enactment” of the bill

Senate Democrats note “Immediate Benefits” of health care bill. According to a document put forth by Senate Democrats summarizing the “Immediate Benefits” of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the bill includes numerous benefits that would “be available in the first year after enactment” of the bill. Indeed, WashingtonPost.com blogger Ezra Klein published the following list of benefits that the Senate bill would provide “before 2014”:

1) Eliminating lifetime limits, and cap annual limits, on health-care benefits. In other words, if you get an aggressive cancer and your treatment costs an extraordinary amount, your insurer can't suddenly remind you that subparagraph 15 limited your yearly expenses to $30,000, and they're not responsible for anything above that.

2) No more rescissions.

3) Some interim help for people who have preexisting conditions, though the bill does not instantly ban discrimination on preexisting conditions.

4) Requiring insurers to cover preventive care and immunizations.

5) Allowing young adults to stay on their parent's insurance plan until age 26.

6) Developing uniform coverage documents so people can compare different insurance policies in an apples-to-apples fashion.

7) Forcing insurers to spend 80 percent of all premium dollars on medical care (75 percent in the individual market), thus capping the money that can go toward administration, profits, etc.

8) Creating an appeals process and consumer advocate for insurance customers.

9) Developing a temporary re-insurance program to help early retirees (folks over 55) afford coverage.

10) Creating an internet portal to help people shop for and compare coverage.

11) Miscellaneous administrative simplification stuff.

12) Banning discrimination based on salary (i.e., where a company that's not self-insured makes only some full-time workers eligible for coverage.