The health care reform buzz may be front and center in the news these days, but with so many media outlets and so many opinions, it’s not easy to keep up. And yet it is most certainly an issue that many of us are watching with great concern and curiosity.

A number of senior advocacy organizations are offering valuable resources for the general public to stay current on the latest and greatest, specifically in terms of the impact on seniors. I’ve listed a few of them here:

- The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a briefing on “How Health Reform will impact seniors” on September 17, 2009.  To view the archived webcast of the hearing, visit http://aging.senate.gov/.

- If you’re like me, you want to see things on paper (or read it on a computer screen). To see a comprehensive, side-by-side comparison of major health care reform proposals, check out this excellent tool from the policy experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF): http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm.

- Another great side-by-side comparison from KFF takes a specific look at key Medicare provisions in the health reform proposals. To view the tool, go to http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7948.pdf.

- AAHSA (American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging) explores a number of topics relating to seniors and health reform on their advocacy page – including an overview of the CLASS Act/Affordable Health Choices Act legislation: http://www.aahsa.org/classact.aspx

- You can also visit AARP’s home page to “Get the Facts on Health Reform” (go to http://www.aarp.org/health/articles/health_reform_get_the_facts.html) or to read a feature article on the impact of changes to Medicare at http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/medicare/articles/medicare_question.html.

- Most likely, your Member of Congress or U.S. Senator has a number of links or articles on their home page, outlining their position on and understanding of the reform debate. Many legislators have and continue to host Town Hall meetings to garner input and feedback from their constituents; some have been met with great success while others have encountered some heated opinions that have certainly made the news. Visit http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov/ to find your elected official’s home page. Visit http://www.thomas.gov/ to access the actual legislation (you can do a keyword search, or get the bill numbers from the KFF’s report above).

Proposals are just that – so they are liable to change as the debate goes on. But for now, you can get up to speed by accessing a few of the above resources.

- Michelle Seitzer