Sen. Ben Nelson has reached an agreement with Democratic leaders on health care reform, senators say.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Last night I was up late covering the senate vote on health care for CNN. The number of e-mails I was receiving while discussing this on air was staggering. I realized that as much as we talked about cloture and reconciliation, most people who didn’t read the 2,000+ page bill (which is most everyone) really wanted to know what this bill means for them. They didn’t care as much about the compromise that was struck by Sen. Ben Nelson, which would obligate the federal government to pick up the Medicaid tab for his state of Nebraska into perpetuity. They are still not sure if a public option is a good thing or not, and they aren’t sure how the exchange would work for them. In short, there is a collision of politics and health care, and sometime the impact on individuals gets a little lost in the shuffle.

I want to use this blog as a platform to try and address some of your specific question and to also throw out some key information that may have flown under the radar. I will start with a number. 2014. This is the year most of the provisions of the bill would kick in under this version of reform. That’s right – four years away. Many people think health care reform in binary terms. One moment there is a vote, and the next moment you have it. Many wish it were that easy. It is true that children may benefit earlier in some areas, but for the vast majority of the more than 40 million uninsured, things aren’t going to change significantly for a few years. And, speaking of the more than 40 million uninsured, this bill won’t impact all of them, but instead roughly 31 million.

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Editor’s Note: Tonight, President Obama will outline the new U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan. He reportedly will announce the decision to increase the number of the troops in the theater by more than 30,000. News of the plan has already met skepticism with Obama’s own party. Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Michael Ware reported from Afghanistan earlier this fall about how troops are battling insurgents in the region. Watch their reports and tune in tonight for full coverage of President Obama’s announcement at 7 p.m. ET.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Editor’s Note: Tonight, President Obama will outline the new U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan. He reportedly will announce the decision to increase the number of the troops in the theater by more than 30,000. News of the plan has already met skepticism with Obama’s own party. Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Michael Ware reported from Afghanistan earlier this fall about how troops are battling insurgents in the region. Watch their reports and tune in tonight for full coverage of President Obama’s announcement at 7 p.m. ET.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear Dr. Sanjay Gupta report on a near-death experience. Tonight AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Editor's Note: Below is an excerpt from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta's new book, "Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Life Against All Odds" published by Wellness Central, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The following is from Chapter Two: A Heart-Stopping Moment.

Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds,

Sanjay Gupta, M.D.
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Mike Mertz was driving home, an hour after finishing his run as a school bus driver in Glendale, Arizona. He told me he doesn't remember why he didn't come straight home from work that day. He thinks that maybe he went for a jog. A trim fifty-nine years old, Mertz enjoyed a two- or three-mile run several days a week. Maybe he was looking for a cheaper gas station than the one on his usual route or was just trying to avoid taking his Saturn over a nasty set of new speed bumps. Whatever the reason, whatever route he wandered, it brought Mertz not to the usual entrance of his townhome complex, but the back driveway. The change in routine may have saved his life.

Corey Ash, a UPS driver, was making deliveries that Wednesday afternoon, when he heard a terrible engine noise. Thinking the sound was underneath his own hood, he pulled over. Hopping out, Ash immediately realized that it was coming from a Saturn almost directly across the street.

It was an accident scene. The small silver car was piled up against a palm tree, the engine revving at top speed. The only thing keeping it in place was a stucco wall a few feet from the tree; the car was wedged between the two. Racing over, Ash could see that the driver had his eyes closed and seemed to be unconscious. The driver's foot was wedged against the accelerator. Ignoring the chance that the car might break free and crush him, Ash reached across the slumped body and turned off the ignition. He dragged Mertz out of the car and laid him on the ground. After dialing 911, Ash started CPR the way he'd learned during an Air National Guard training exercise just two months before.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who contracted H1N1 in Afghanistan, receives treatment.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

It started as a cough. It wasn’t the kind of cough where something is temporarily stuck in your throat. It wasn’t the kind of cough where simply clearing your throat would’ve been adequate. This was the kind of cough that hurts when you do it. A stinging pain that makes you wince and guard and hope that you don’t have to cough again any time soon.

I thought I might have a fever, but of course, I was in the middle of covering a war in Afghanistan, and the conditions were… well, hot. So, maybe it was that. Problem was, the next day I wasn’t feeling any better – in fact, I was worse. I woke up in my dusty desert tent and tried to step out of my sleeping bag. Two steps later, I almost hit the deck. Incoming. Except this wasn’t due to any sirens going off, this was due to my own body simply being unable to hold myself up. I was lightheaded and freezing cold – even though it was over 100 degrees outside at that early hour of the morning.

I was nauseated and my entire body hurt. I tried to explain away my symptoms with lots of different excuses. You don’t sleep much while covering a war. My bulletproof jacket didn’t fit perfectly and was very heavy. There was a lot of dust and dirt, and maybe I had what the Marines referred to as the Kandahar Krud. It turned out to be none of those things.

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Danielle Dellorto
CNN Medical Producer

I remember shuffling through moondust up to my knees in Helmand Province when a U.S. Army combat medic turned to me and said, “If I ask you something, do you promise you’ll be honest?” I nodded yes. “Do people back home still think about us? Do they realize we’re still over here?”

I’ll never forget that moment.

Truth is, while most of America might know that 62,000 U.S. military personnel are in theater, they apparently aren’t happy about it. A recent CNN/Opinion Research poll found that support of the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low. Only 39 percent favor U.S. military action in Afghanistan.

But does supporting the overall mission go hand-in-hand with supporting the troops?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta and I recently embedded with U.S. Army combat medics in Afghanistan. I slept where they slept, ate what they ate, and followed them day in and day out. Their job is to rescue and triage injured soldiers at a moment’s notice. They are always ready. They even sleep with their shoes on.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that these soldiers were no different from the factory worker in middle America. Both work tirelessly in their jobs, both want to succeed, both want to provide for their families. And despite the echoes of mortar fire over their shoulders, extreme heat and no communication with loved ones – I never heard the soldiers complain. I watched the medics save countless lives: sons and daughters, husband and wives from all around the world. Why? It’s their job.

So as I looked in the eyes of that U.S. soldier – the one who feared America might have forgotten about him – I realized my job is to not only report on the medical military operations but also to highlight the courageous stories of those risking their own lives to save others in Afghanistan.

I am back home now…and yes, I still think about them.

Program Note: Tune in tonight to see Dr. Sanjay Gupta report from a field hospital in Afghanistan. AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Tim Langmaid
CNN Medical Managing Editor

I work with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in CNN’s Medical unit. Sanjay is a practicing neurosurgeon who spends much of his time away from CNN working at a hospital in Atlanta. Since he joined CNN in 2001, Sanjay’s two worlds (brain surgeon and journalist) have collided (so to speak) on a few occasions.

While covering the war in Iraq in 2003, Sanjay was called upon while reporting on the U.S. Navy’s Devil Docs - the military's nickname for a group of physicians who provide battlefield medical care. A 23-year-old Marine hit with a sniper’s bullet was left with massive head trauma. Jesus Vidana was declared dead – twice. But he had a faint pulse when he reached Sanjay, the surgeon. Vidana survived the surgery,  and the war.

Sanjay was still in the war zone in Iraq when he was asked about the surgery. His response offers some insight into Sanjay the doctor, the journalist and the human being.

“They don't have a neurosurgeon here,” Sanjay said. “They knew that I performed these sorts of operations so they asked me to actually perform that particular operation- which I felt medically and morally was the right thing to do.”

A couple of years later, Sanjay wrote: “As a neurosurgeon, I was asked to step back from my journalist's role to look at his gunshot wound to the head. Shortly thereafter, I was removing a bullet from his brain. Within an hour, Jesus had been treated, operated on and was recovering just outside the operating room.”

Sanjay is currently on assignment in Afghanistan. He is covering U.S. military doctors in the battle zone and reporting for Anderson Cooper 360°. This week he has been called upon again as a surgeon, this time for an operation that required four surgeons when only three were available. Sanjay is profiling one of the other surgeons tonight on AC360°. You should watch—you’ll find that Sanjay has more in common with this doctor than just medicine.

It is controversial whenever a journalist becomes part of the story he or she is covering. I have been a journalist for more than 20 years and I fully understand that. But I also think there are exceptions—and Sanjay is one of those exceptions. I would argue that if Sanjay did not pick up a scalpel in the field when it is requested (and ABSOLUTELY necessary), it would be even more controversial.

Yes, I think Sanjay is an exception. And I think Sanjay’s few battle field patients (and their families) would agree.

Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on H1N1. AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to Dr. Jim Fortenberry, pediatrician in chief at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Over this past week, I had some interesting conversations with colleagues who are also health care professionals. These conversations usually start with, "You know what I hate about the media ... ?"

Now, over the past eight years, I have grown accustomed to being engaged in these sort of discussions where I am asked about everything the "media" have reported over the past few months, and asked to defend things point by point. It can be a challenging task.

This time, however, the topic was H1N1, or swine flu.

I spent the weekend thinking about what I was being told, and realized there was a larger point here.

People were scared, more than I had seen in a long time. And, health care professionals were blaming the media - accusing them of being alarmist.

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AC360°

The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released last week by a presidential advisory panel.

The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported.

The report says 30,000 to 90,000 deaths are projected as part of a "plausible scenario" involving large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective.

Do you have questions about these numbers? Let us know! Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be on 360° to answer them tonight.

AC360°

The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel.

The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported.

The report says 30,000 to 90,000 deaths are projected as part of a "plausible scenario" involving large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective.

Do you have questions about these numbers? Let us know! Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be on 360° to answer them tonight.