Affordable Care Act

A sweeping United States federal law, formally the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, after passage by the 111th Congress, described as the country's largest expansion of health coverage since Medicare and Medicaid began in 1965. It required insurers to accept all applicants regardless of preexisting conditions and barred pricing based on health status, created regulated insurance marketplaces for individuals to buy coverage, and offered premium tax credits to households earning 100 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. It also expanded Medicaid eligibility to those earning up to 133 percent of the poverty line in states that adopted the expansion, and it originally required most people to carry insurance or pay a penalty, though that penalty was reduced to zero starting in 2019. By 2016 the uninsured share of the United States population had roughly halved, with estimates of 20 to 24 million additional people gaining coverage.