Healthcare REform
- The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010.
- The Act affirms “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care,”
- widely nicknamed Obamacare
- As a candidate, Obama proposed what became “the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history.” In the general election it was a cornerstone of his campaign.
- At the 2010 signing, Obama noted that it was a law that “generations of Americans have fought for and marched for and hungered to see.”
- Twenty-six states and the National Federation of Independent Business had brought suit in federal court challenging the mandate that individuals carry insurance or pay penalties, as well as the expansion of Medicaid.
- The Supreme Court ruled that states could not be forced into cooperating with the Medicaid expansion, but left most of the other provisions intact.
- Addressing the many concerns expressed nationwide, the Act pointed out that “nothing in this act or anywhere in the bill forces anyone to change the insurance they have, period.” It vowed a “new transparent and competitive insurance marketplace.”
- Obama was re-elected November 2012, defeating the GOP candidate who promised to dismantle Obamacare. The re-election effectively ensured the Act would become reality.