The health-reform law is changing the health-insurance marketplace in big ways. The first changes—those that happen right away—take effect Sept. 23, 2010, six months after the health-reform bill was signed.,, Consumer Reports offers a free health-insurance guide [.pdf] to how the new law affects you.

If you get health insurance through work, your coverage will likely remain pretty much the same, but with some new consumer protections. Lifetime caps on coverage are banned, for example, and insurers will have to adopt new procedures allowing workers to appeal coverage denials.

According to the new Patient’s Bill of Rights insurers can no longer do the following: Cancel your coverage if you get sick; set lifetime limits on coverage; put annual dollar limits on coverage (this is phased in over three years); deny coverage to children under age 19 who have pre-existing conditions; and impose barriers to or refuse to pay for emergency care even if it’s at a hospital outside the insurer’s network.

Young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26 instead of being taken off when they graduate from high school or college. Also, if you have been uninsured for six months and have a pre-existing medical condition, you can apply for coverage through new high-risk pools being set up in each state. The program will last until 2014, when other options kick in and insurers cannot discriminate on the basis of health status.

Small firms don’t have the bargaining clout big companies do, and they can be vulnerable to stiff premium hikes if a single employee needs expensive care. Thus, they often pay more for health insurance. Starting this year, businesses with up to 25 workers and average wages per worker up to $50,000 per year can get tax credits to offset the cost of insuring their employees…

Starting in 2011 states will be responsible for enhanced review of health-insurance company rate increase requests. Also, insurers will have to spend 80 to 85 cents out of every premium dollar on medical care. If they don’t, they have to rebate the extra amount to consumers.

I suggest you download the brochure – via the link up top — and find out what you’re supposed to hate and fear. This week.