What is the Affordable Care Act?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a comprehensive health care reform law enacted in 2010. The ACA is also known as Obamacare. It expanded access to health coverage by increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, creating the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and requiring most U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to have health insurance or pay a penalty. The primary goals of the ACA were to make health care more affordable and to make it easier for people to obtain health insurance. The law provided premium tax credits to people with low or moderate incomes and cost-sharing reductions (subsidies) to people with higher incomes. It also required most health insurance plans to cover certain essential health benefits, such as mental health services, preventive care, and prescriptions. In Washington State, the ACA has helped reduce the number of uninsured residents from 14.4% to 8.4%, according to a May 2019 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. It also expanded Medicaid coverage to more than 700,000 residents in the state. The ACA is not without controversy. Several provisions of the law have been challenged in court, and the Trump administration has taken steps to weaken some of the ACA’s provisions. The future of the ACA remains uncertain.

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What is the Affordable Care Act?

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