Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare – is the landmark health reform legislation passed by the 111th Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010.

The legislation includes a long list of health-related provisions that began taking effect in 2010; the bulk of the law had been implemented by 2014.

Key provisions were intended to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, to implement measures to lower health care costs and improve system efficiency, and to eliminate industry practices that include rescission and denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

As a result of the PPACA, Medicaid expansion had been implemented in 38 states as of 2022. Medicaid enrollment had grown by more than 30 million people between late 2013 and early 2022 (the growth was due to a combination of Medicaid expansion, the COVID pandemic, and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which paused Medicaid eligibility redeterminations through the end of the COVID public health emergency).

Also as a result of the PPACA, each state has a health insurance exchange/marketplace where people can buy health coverage if they don’t have access to employer-sponsored coverage or a government-run plan such as Medicare or Medicaid. As of 2022, there were 14.5 million people enrolled in coverage through the exchanges nationwide. 

Learn more about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

• Obamacare metal plans
• How Obamacare changed group health insurance
• Does the ACA make it easier to get individual health insurance?