President Obama Signs “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” Into Law
| Health Care Reform Timeline The Society has summarized and condensed details of the health care reform implementation timeline to assist members. View timeline » |
On Sunday, March 21, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on two health care reform bills:
- The U.S. Senate-passed health care reform bill titled the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (H.R. 3590)
- The reconciliation bill, which makes changes to H.R. 3590 designed to be responsive to the concerns of House Democrats as agreed to in negotiations with the White House.
The House voted along party lines, 219- 212, to pass the Senate version of health care reform legislation. The House then voted 220-211 to pass H.R. 4872, the reconciliation package. President Barack Obama signed “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” (H.R. 3590, the Senate-passed bill) into law on Tuesday, March 23.
While the Society is pleased that the new law addresses insurance reform expanding health insurance to millions of Americans, we are disappointed that the current law does not address our concerns with provisions that will affect patient access to specialty care, despite regular feedback from the Society and many other medical societies provided throughout the reform process. Among these provisions are the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), valued-based purchasing, mis-valued physician payment Services and medical liability reform. Learn more about the Society’s concerns » (PDF, 240K)
The Senate is scheduled to debate and vote on the House-passed reconciliation bill in the coming days. If during that debate the Senate subsequently modifies to the reconciliation bill, the revised bill would again have to be passed by the House before the President could sign it and and “fix” the Patient Protection and Affordable Care law.
