The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama in March 2010 is a landmark in U.S. social legislation, and the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the Act has ensured that it will remain the law of the land. The new law extends health insurance to nearly all Americans, fulfilling a century-long quest and bringing the United States to parity with other industrial nations. Affordable Care aims to control rapidly rising health care costsand promises to make the United States more equal, reversing four decades of rising disparities between the very rich and everyone else. Millions of people of modest means will gain new benefits and protections from insurance company abuses - and the tab will be paid by privileged corporations andthe very rich.

Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.
Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and past president of the American Political Science Association.

• Preface


• Acknowledgements


• Introduction. A Turning Point for U.S. Health Care and Politics


• Timeline of Health Reform Events


• Chapter 1. Why Now? Broken Health Care and an Election for Change


• Chapter 2. The Year of Pitched Battles: Who Fought for What, Why, and How


• Chapter 3. How the Scott Brown Upset Strengthened Health Reform


• Chapter 4. What Did They Deliver? The Promise of Affordable Care


• Chapter 5. Will Health Care Reform Survive and Succeed?


• Glossary of Key People, Groups, Legislation, and Health Care Terms


• Endnotes