Healthcare: As Health-Care Law Turns 1, Some Clarity on What It Does and How It Does It

The health-care reform law is, without a doubt, among the most consequential pieces of social policy passed since the Great Society. But it's also a lot more incremental than many people realize. More modest, by far, than the health-care overhauls proposed by Presidents Clinton, Nixon, Johnson and Truman.

In 2019, once the law has been fully implemented for five years, it is expected to cover about two-thirds of the uninsured, to cost about 4 percent of what the health-care system spends in any given year and to cut the federal deficit by less than 1 percent. If you obtain insurance from your employer, Medicare, Medicaid or the veterans system - and that describes most Americans - you probably won't notice the legislation at all.

Nevertheless, the Affordable Care Act, once it kicks in fully in 2014, is expected to do four things: provide coverage; remake a small slice of the private insurance market; pay for itself; and try to control costs.

For more, see As Health-Care Law Turns 1, Some Clarity on What It Does and How It Does It March 22, 2011 at The Washington Post.