Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform 2010

Abstract

President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, and his first order of business was to implement a nationwide health care reform initiative. Having the advantage of a Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the bill passed into law quickly and President Obama received the bill for signature in March 2010. This report will summarize the health care reform bill content, as well as summarize the long-term cost of the program.

Health Care Reform 2010

After an embattled Democratic Party primary, Barack Obama won the party’s nomination for president of the United States. At the time, given many years of war in the Middle East and the downturn in the economy, the general populace was at-odds with the Republican Party and wanted “change.” The change was in the message sent by the voters in the landslide victory for President Barack Obama.

President Obama had a long agenda of initiatives, but none more important than national health care reform. In his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, he stated, “Our health care is too costly,” and “We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost” (“Barack Obama: Inaugural Address: U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989”). At the time, the Democrats were in control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, so the timing was perfect for President Obama to achieve his objectives. After much debate, even within the Democratic Party, House Bill H.R. 4872, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), along with House Bill H.R. 3950, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, became effective on March 23, 2010, when President Obama signed the bills into law (“Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”). The combination of these bills, became commonly known as “ObamaCare.”

At first glance the vast majority of people...