page_title: Affordable Care Act
section_title: Provisions
hierarchical_section_title: Affordable Care Act / Provisions
caption_attribution_description: English: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and senior staff, react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, as the House passes the health care reform bill.
context_page_description: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the Affordable Care Act or colloquially as Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
  ACA's major provisions came into force in 2014. By 2016, the uninsured share of the population had roughly halved, with estimates ranging from 20 to 24 million additional people covered. The law also enacted a host of delivery system reforms intended to constrain healthcare costs and improve quality. After the law went into effect, increases in overall healthcare spending slowed, including premiums for employer-based insurance plans.
  The increased coverage was due, roughly equally, to an expansion of Medicaid eligibility and to changes to individual insurance markets.
context_section_description: ACA amended the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and inserted new provisions on affordable care into Title 42 of the United States Code. The individual insurance market was radically overhauled, and many of the law's regulations applied specifically to this market, while the structure of Medicare, Medicaid, and the employer market were largely retained. Some regulations applied to the employer market, and the law also made delivery system changes that affected most of the health care system.
caption: The President and White House staff react to the House of Representatives passing the bill on March 21, 2010.
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