Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (better known as the Affordable Care Act or simply the ACA) has faced skepticism and criticism from many. This landmark health reform law contains many provisions that will help ensure accessible, comprehensive, affordable, non-discriminatory coverage for consumers, especially people with disabilities. Other ACA programs can be found on healthcare.gov.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

• Reformprovisions intended to contain Medicare costs while increasing revenue, improving and streamlining its delivery systems, and increasing services to the program.
• Enacted March 23, 2010

American Health Care Act of 2017

• Intended to repeal the ACA and control Medicaid program to states and cap the program's funding
• Did not pass

ACA Appeals

A lawsuit, Texas v. United States, was initially filed in February 2018 by 20 Republican state attorneys general and Republican governors from Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the individual mandate after Congress enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which "zeroed out" the individual mandate penalty beginning in 2019. The tax reform bill was adopted in December 2017 using the budget reconciliation process after Congress repeatedly tried and failed to repeal the ACA throughout 2017. Without the penalty, the plaintiffs argue that the mandate is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments over whether to affirm or reverse the district court decision that declared that the entire ACA is invalid.

• Read the Amicus Brief here.