Obama's Health Care Law

  "O...b...a....."

Healthcare reform was one of Barack Obama's main focuses coming into office
March 23, 2010 - Obama signs the 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' into Law (A second Act was passed to enhance it soon after, but this was the main Health Care Bill)
[Detailed Explanation: How a Bill Becomes a Law]
[Simple Flowchart: How a Bill Becomes a Law]
At this time, Democrats held the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives
No Republicans supported the Bill in the Senate or House of Representatives, but as the initial minority their support was not needed to ultimately pass the bill (There was minor Democrat opposition as well, but again, not enough)
[Full Breakdown of House Vote]
Cost: $940 Billion over 10 years, savings and revenue would reduce Federal deficit by $132 billion (according to Congressional Budget Office at time of creation)
Aimed at: extending coverage to 32 million American (expanding covered Americans from 83% to about 95%), control healthcare costs, improve healthcare delivery system
Funded by: New taxes (higher taxes primarily for affluent people defined as making +$200K, married couple making +$250K), new fees on industries involved in health care, cuts in projected spending growth for Medicare.

The Plan:
[Detailed Summary of the Bill If You Are Interested]
There are immediate changes, and changes to gradually phase in over the next 10 years
[Implementation Timeline If You Are Interested]
One of the first big implementations to begin its 'phased-in' process is Guaranteed Coverage - that is, you no longer can be turned down by an insurance provider for coverage due to pre-existent conditions (fully phased in by 2014)
This is one of the many changes that make this a very costly bill
So, in order for insurers to cover and pay the costs...everyone must buy insurance
Therefore, the Bill includes an 'individual mandate' - set for 2014 - that requires everyone to have health insurance or else pay a fine, in the form of a [tax penalty, detailed here]

The individual is required to have insurance, which leaves them 2 choices:

1) You can keep your current plan, whether your own or through an employer, (or stay/get back on your parent's plan up until age 26 according to the [Age Extension Provision explained here]) and therefore are affected less by all these changes (senior citizens on Medicare- and needy individuals on Medicaid can also keep their plans)

Or..

2) Buy coverage through new state-run insurance marketplaces starting in 2014, which will allow people to comparison shop the various certified plans offered by public and private insurers

How will it specifically affect your insurance coverage and taxes?

Depends on your Employer, Income, Age, Location, & Family Size

[See Here How You Are Affected]

....Okay so that is a basic explanation of the new law

Republican Congressional Leaders:
(left to right) Mitch McConnell (KY),
John Boehner (OH), Eric Cantor (VA)

As noted earlier, though, Republicans, on the whole, have been against the new law; citing problems with big government, high taxes, budget concerns, job killing and specific mandates within the bill:
[Summary of a Republican Senator's Report of Problems with Health Care Bill]
The Bill passed anyway - but a number of Republican Representatives vowed to try and repeal the law
-As of the 2010 elections, Republicans now have control of the House of Representatives
-The Senate, however, is still controlled by the Democrats
-A repeal of a law must follow the same process of enacting a law, in that a new bill must be put forward by a member of Congress, with wording to repeal or amend the existing law, and it must pass in the same way [Refer back to: Flowchart]
-So, a repeal must go through a Democratic-controlled Senate and then be approved by the president; Obama would most certainly veto such a Bill, which could only be overridden by a 2/3 majority in both houses
 
The 4 main ways the opposition can attempt to repeal, or at least challenge the reforms in place:
1) Bring their bid of repeal to Democratic-controlled Senate- [They have done this recently]- affecting a few of the law's minor provisions, but as expected, that [repeal was rejected] recently. (the call for repeal panned out more as a symbolic gesture)
2) Bring it to Court - declaring the law unconstitutional - namely on the grounds of the individual mandate, which requires you to buy health insurance, as constitutionally outside the powers of Congress (as it is a central provision, if declared unconstitutional, it could take down the entire law) and hope that Supreme Court will ultimately repeal it after some time.
-It is [currently being tried in the district courts] (lower courts) - [Refer to: Simple Diagram of Federal Judicial System] - Opposers are petitioning to skip the next level of appellate courts, but the Supreme Court is expected to reject this petition and wait to see how it plays out
3) Try to block funding [WSJ- Short Article on Initial Plan to Block Funding]
4) Investigate the Bill for any wrongdoings, known as oversight [Initial Oversight Investigations]
[More Extensive List of Possible Methods to Challenge the Bill]
 
So, Republican Representatives are challenging this law at the moment and they will attempt to utilize these 4 main methods listed above to affect changes to the Bill.