Affordable Care Act Facts for Kids

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a law in the United States. It was signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Many people also know it as Obamacare. This law changed how health care works for millions of Americans. It aimed to make health insurance more affordable and available to more people.

What the Law Does
Disagreements About the Law
2017 Effort to Change the Law
Related pages
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What the Law Does

The health care law has many important parts.

General Rules

Now, health insurance companies cannot put a limit on how long a person can receive health care. If an insurance company wants to make people pay more for their health coverage, they must explain why to the public. The money people pay for health care, called an insurance premium, must mostly be used by companies for health care. It cannot be used for other things, like paying workers.

Health care that helps stop sickness before it starts is now free for many people. This is called preventive care. Health plans also give people more choices for doctors. People can also get emergency health care at hospitals not usually covered by their insurance.

Help for Children

Because of this law, children can stay on their parents' health insurance until they are 26 years old. Also, insurance companies must give good health insurance to children under 19. This is true even if the child was very sick before their parents bought the insurance. This means companies cannot refuse to cover children who are not perfectly healthy.

Individual Mandate

The law said that most people in the U.S. needed to have health insurance. If they did not, they might have to pay a tax. This part of the law was called the individual mandate. The Supreme Court of the United States said the government had the right to collect this tax. The amount of this tax would go up each year until 2016. Some people did not have to pay this tax, like very poor people who could not get free insurance. (Note: This tax penalty was later removed in 2019.)

Rules for Companies

Starting in 2015, companies with more than 50 full-time workers had to offer health insurance to those workers. A full-time worker is someone who works more than 30 hours a week at one job. Companies with fewer than 50 workers did not have to do this.

Health Insurance Marketplace

If you did not have health insurance, you could buy it on the Health Insurance Marketplace. You could also use the marketplace if you were not happy with the insurance your job offered. People could buy insurance on the marketplace website, Healthcare.gov.

Each health insurance plan on this market must pay for certain things. These include prescription medicine, emergency health care, maternity care (for pregnant women), mental health care, and rehabilitation.

Medicaid Expansion

Medicaid is health insurance for people with low incomes. It is paid for by the states and the federal government. The law allowed Medicaid to be expanded so more people could use it. States could choose if they wanted to expand Medicaid. If they did, the federal government would pay for most of the cost.

Disagreements About the Law

Not everyone agreed with the Affordable Care Act.

Effect on Companies

Some people worried that companies might not hire new workers. They also worried companies might make people work less than 30 hours a week. This would mean companies would not have to pay for health insurance for those workers. There were some stories about this, but no big studies showed it was happening a lot.

Medicaid Expansion Disagreement

Some states were not happy about expanding Medicaid. The Supreme Court of the United States decided that these states did not have to expand Medicaid, even if the federal government wanted them to.

Government Shutdown

In October 2013, the U.S. government stopped working for 16 days. This happened because Republicans in Congress wanted to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. They refused to agree on a budget unless President Obama changed the law. This led to the government shutdown. Over 800,000 government workers were not paid during this time.

"Death Panels" Claim

In 2009, Sarah Palin, who used to be a candidate for vice president, said that the Affordable Care Act would create "death panels." She claimed these groups would decide if older people should get health care or die. Many news companies and researchers showed that what she said was not true. The law does not create "death panels."

2017 Effort to Change the Law

On May 4, 2017, a bill called the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) was passed by the United States House of Representatives. The vote was very close. This bill aimed to replace and remove Obamacare. President Donald Trump supported this new bill. However, it did not pass in the Senate.

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The President and White House staff react to the House of Representatives passing the bill on March 21, 2010.
Jim Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi celebrate after the House passes the amended bill on March 21.
President Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.
A protest sign about "Death Panels."
John Chafee
Mitt Romney's Massachusetts went from 90% of its residents insured to 98%, the highest rate in the nation.
President Obama addressing Congress regarding healthcare reform, September 9, 2009
Tea Party protesters at the Taxpayer March on Washington, September 12, 2009
U.S. health insurance coverage by source in 2016.
This chart illustrates several aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
Excise taxes percentage 2015
States that expanded Medicaid under ACA had a lower uninsured rate in 2018.
The impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) in 2014.
Coverage rate, employer market cost trends, and other aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
Congressional Democrats celebrate the 6th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—number of additional persons uninsured.