Legislation

Obama Signs Health Care Reform Bill Into Law

JASON SCHOSSLER, Andrews Publications Correspondent
Health Law Litigation Reporter

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During a festive White House ceremony Tuesday morning President Obama signed the monumental health care bill into law.

"Today, after almost a century of trying - today, after over a year of debate - today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America," Obama said from the East Room of the White House.

After speaking, the president signed the Affordable Health Care for America Act, using 20 pens that he planned to pass out as mementos to key lawmakers who helped push the bill through Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Vice President Joe Biden and other top Democratic leaders surrounded the president as he officially brought into law the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades.

Passage of the bill concludes a year of intense debate and represents a triumph for Obama, who had campaigned on health care reform during the 2008 presidential election season.

The landmark legislation, passed by the House two days before in a 219-212 vote, expands Medicaid for 32 million Americans who currently are without insurance coverage.

The bill also prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to people who are sick or have pre-existing conditions and includes subsidies for low- and middle-income people to purchase private coverage.

It also allows young adults aged 26 or younger to remain on their parents' insurance plans.

Parts of the bill, including a provision that will allow individuals to buy coverage through new, state-run insurance marketplaces called "exchanges," will not go into effect until 2014.

Every congressional Republican opposed the bill. They were joined by 34 Democrats.

After the signing, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, tweeted, "With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has signed away another share of Americans' freedom. We will take it back."

Other Republican leaders also have vowed to repeal the bill.

"In ramming through a bill that forces government into the most personal aspect of our lives, the president and his Democrat Party have revealed themselves as being radically to the left of the American people," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said shortly after the signing.

The legislative battle over the bill will continue as the Senate now prepares to take up a series of amendments to the measure under a parliamentary procedure known as "reconciliation."

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