Health Reform

Health Reform, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010. While the law has far-reaching implications for health care in the United States, it is designed to create a more efficient health care system that serves more people.

Media coverage focuses on the public’s divided opinion about the law, yet the reality is more nuanced. Many individual provisions of the law are highly popular including tax credits for small businesses, the ban on denying insurance coverage due to medical history, financial help for low and moderate income families, and the prohibition of lifetime coverage limits.

The law will gradually roll out through 2014, yet many of its provisions are already in effect. The challenge will be efficient implementation while continually improving the health care system, as it begins to serve the health care needs of many more Americans.

ACA Help Desk: Your questions and answers

Resources

National

  • Health insurance coverage and the Affordable Care Act

    Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, March 16, 2015

  • I Have Health Insurance! Now What?

    enroll207.com

  • Putting patients first: A guide for understanding out-of-pocket spending

    Putting Patients First

  • application/pdf iconThe Affordable Care Act's first enrollment period: Why did some people enroll and others did not?

    Enroll America, April 2014

  • Who are the newly insured as of early March 2014?

    Urban Institute Health Policy Center, May 22, 2014

  • The Uninsured: A Primer - Key Facts about Health Insurance on the Eve of Coverage Expansions

    Kaiser Family Foundation, Oct. 23, 2013

  • The Uninsured: An Interactive Tool

    Kaiser Family Foundation, November 2013

  • HealthCare.gov

    Health insurance marketplace is coming soon. Use this site and its resources to answer your questions about the marketplace and insurance.

  • Changes in Health Insurance Coverage in the Great Recession, 2007-2010

    Kaiser Family Foundation, Dec. 1, 2011

  • Analysis Compares Availability, Cost of Coverage for Workers in Small & Large Firms

    Kaiser Family Foundation, December 2012

  • application/pdf iconPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

    July 2010

  • State Health Facts
  • New Estimates of Gaps and Transitions in Health Insurance

    The Commonwealth Fund, August 2012

  • Summary of Key Changes to Medicare in 2010 Health Reform Law

    Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2010

  • Health Reform and Medicare: A video tutorial

    Kaiser EDU, 2010

  • Data Note: Repealing the Affordable Care Act: Implications for Medicare Spending and Beneficiaries

    Kaiser Family Foundation, September 2012.

  • Characteristics of Uninsured Low-Income Adults

    Kaiser Family Foundation, Aug. 24, 2012

  • Oceans Apart: The Higher Health Costs of Women in the U.S. Compared to Other Nations, and How Reform Is Helping

    The Commonwealth Fund, July 13, 2012

  • Health Reform Bracketology

    Leavitt Partners

  • 10 Priorities for Health Reform Implementation

    National Academy for State Health Policy, 2012

  • A Guide to the Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act Decision

    Kaiser Family Foundation, July 5, 2012

  • Supreme Court health care decision (full text)

    Washington Post, June 28,2012.

  • Health Law Is Mixed Bag For Employers

    Kaiser Health News

  • Kaiser Analysis: Estimated Health Insurance Rebates Under The Health Reform Law Total $1.3 Billion Dollars In 2012

    Kaiser Family Foundation, April 26, 2012

  • Frequently Asked Questions about the Affordable Care Act

    The Kaiser Family Foundation

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll

    Kaiser Family Foundation

  • Survey: Key Groups Unaware of Health Law Benefits

    Kaiser Health Foundation

  • Illustrating Health Reform: How Health Insurance Coverage Will Work

    Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Health Reform Source

  • Women at Risk: Why Increasing Numbers of Women Are Failing to Get the Health Care They Need and How the Affordable Care Act Will Help
  • The Role of the Basic Health Program in the Coverage Continuum: Opportunities, Risks & Considerations for States
  • Is Bigger Better When it Comes to Government Health Spending?

    Despite recent polling finding that a majority of Americans prefer a smaller overall government, a new poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health found that a majority of Americans—52 percent—prefer a bigger government providing more health services, while just 37 percent support a smaller government providing fewer health services.

  • application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation iconCCMC and the Herndon Alliance ACA voter survey information

    Lake Research Partners, 2011

  • Glossary-The most important terms in health care policy, from A to Z

    Kaiser Health News, 2011

  • Full Text Of The Health Reform Law: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

    Kaiser Health News, 2010

  • application/pdf iconSmall business healthcare tax credits
  • State Action Towards Creating a Health Insurance Exchange

    statehealthfacts.org, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

  • Affordable Care Act Provisions Relating to the Care of Dually Eligible Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries

    Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, June 2011.

  • Explaining Health Reform: The New Rules for Determining Income Under Medicaid in 2014

    Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, June 2011.

  • Medicaid's Role for Hispanic Americans

    Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, May 2011.

  • Medicaid's Role for Black Americans

    Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, May 2011.

  • Realizing Health Reform's Potential: Maintaining Coverage, Affordability, and Shared Responsibility When Income and Employment Change

    The Commonwealth Fund, May 2011.

  • Ensuring Access to Care in Medicaid Under Health Reform

    This paper examines the key issues raised in a December 2010 roundtable discussion of federal and state officials and experts convened by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured to examine important issues related to ensuring access to care in Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2011.

  • Snapshots: Health Care Costs

    A series of online publications written by Kaiser Foundation staff that use charts, data and analysis to provide insight into the political and policy debates about the cost of health care in the United States. The publications are designed to encourage an informed policy discussion as leaders in Washington and across the country weigh strategies for controlling the rising cost of health care for people, businesses and government alike.

  • State Budgets Under Federal Health Reform: The Extent and Causes of Variations in Estimated Impacts

    This analysis from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examines the potential costs and savings that the health reform law may generate for state budgets, a topic of great interest at a time when states continue to struggle with tight budgets in the wake of the recession.

  • Health Reform Central, Families USA

    Provides an overview of the new Health Reform law including answers to questions, fact sheets, and more.

  • application/pdf iconSummary of the New Health Reform Law, Updated April 2011

    Focus on Health Reform, Kaiser Family Foundation, Updated April 2011.

  • application/msword iconHealth Care Reform: What Happens Immediately

    Saint Louis University School of Law, March 2010

  • application/pdf iconHealth Care Reform: The New Law

    Saint Louis University School of Law, April 2010

  • Kaiser Health Reform Source

    The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

  • Health Reform GPS: Navigating Implementation

    A project of the George Washington University’s Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  • Health Reform in Action

    The White House website

  • Health Reform Implementation Timetable

    Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2010

  • HealthCare.gov

    Federal government website about health care and health reform.

Regional

Grant Reports

Infographics

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Premium Subsidy Scenarios Under Obamacare

    Kaiser Family Foundation, infographic courtesy of the Journal of American Medical Association, Sept. 18, 2013

Organizational Resources

News

Regional

More News

From the Blogs

Local Health Buzz