A Brief History of The Affordable Care Act
If your business has recently grown, you might find yourself preparing to meet ACA regulations and standards. Despite the efforts of current legislators the Affordable Care Act still stands intact. Since open enrollment ends on Friday, we wanted to take a look back at the brief history of ACA.
A Brief History of The Affordable Care Act
Inception of the ACA
The Affordable Care Act, or commonly referred to as ObamaCare, was first proposed by former President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. While this was far from a new concept, the past Democratic administrations were unable to pass a mandated national insurance regulation.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March of 2010. Although the majority of provisions went into effect January 1st, 2014 many significant changes went into effect before this date.
Concept of the ACA
Most of the political action taken in 2009 was centered around the ACA. On July 14th the House Democrats first introduced a 1000-page plan for overhauling the past health care system. Many will remember the outrage and debates that insured as a result of this document.
While the Supreme Court ruled in favor the most provisions of the ACA, they could not force cooperation with the Medicare expansion.
Execution of the ACA
Despite all debate, the United States House approved the ACA with a 220-215 vote on November 7th, 2009. The Senate later passed its version later that same year on December 24th with a 60-39 vote. The Senate bill was then amended and approved by the House in a 219-212 vote on March 21st, 2010. During this vote, all Republican representative voted against the law.