United States Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps

(Abstracted from JAMA 2016;316(5):525–532) The economy, federal budgets, and the financial well-being of American families are all impacted by health care costs. To combat the issues of the rapid rise in health care costs as well as to address the issue of a significant proportion of the population being uninsured, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.