Originally appeared in the Boston Bar Journal's Health Law Reporter, Summer 2010.
The Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA) was enacted earlier this year culminating over a year of intense political negotiations, legislative drafting and numerous Congressional hearings over whether, and how, to comprehensively reform the nation's health care system. The ACA is made up of two pieces of legislation - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or "PPACA," Pub. L. No. 111-148, which President Obama Signed on March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or "HCERA," Pub. L. No. 111-152 which President Obama signed on March 30, 2010.