The news this week is full of articles about the provisions in the new One Big Beautiful Bill Act and what the new tax and spending law seeks to do.
President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law Friday.
Simply going through the 880-page package and listing what's in there takes time.
Determining what each provision appears to do may take months, or even years.
One thing that may be missing from some analyses that life, health and annuity clients are seeing now is a look at the forces that could make the reality of OBBBA implementation different from the legislation.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 never offered individuals with health problems much useful access to health coverage on a guaranteed-issue basis, and it failed to do much to simplify health coverage administration.
The Affordable Care Act package of 2010 never really created a big new small-group public health insurance program, and it failed to turn a tax on expensive employer-sponsored health benefits packages into a major source of federal revenue.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 had trouble imposing major financial services reforms, and Trump is now undoing much of what that law did achieve.
The OBBBA could certainly lower some clients' taxes, cut other clients' Medicaid benefits or make other changes, but nothing is guaranteed.
For a look at five of the many forces that complicate efforts to make laws do what the drafters had hoped, see the gallery accompanying this article.
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