FreedomWorks Report: Major Obamacare Revisions & Delays
It has been 3 years since the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act was pushed through Congress by Democrats and signed
into law by President Barack Obama. Yet despite the re-election
of President Obama and the law’s narrow survival in the Supreme
Court, the future of the still-controversial law is anything but certain.
While Republicans continue to be vehemently opposed to the law,
Democrats are increasingly voicing their concerns about the viability
of the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare). This past
April, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), one of the chief architects of the
legislation, went so far as to predict that implementation of the
2,000-plus page law would be a “train wreck”. Further calling the
feasibility of the healthcare overhaul into question is the highlypublicized
decision by the White House to delay the Employer-
Mandate provision of the law in mid-2013.
Generally unreported, however, is the fact that this is just one
of myriad revisions to the law executed thus far. Congress, the
administration, and even the Supreme Court have made several
substantial changes that include more delays, rescissions of funding,
and even annulments of entire portions of the law. This lends clout
to the argument that the entire Affordable Care Act is unworkable
and should continue to be revised, delayed, or repealed entirely.
With so many changes that have been made prior to the law’s full
implementation, one cannot help but to speculate the extent of
ineffectual and/or adverse provisions that still exist.
This report documents and details the major changes to this law that
have occurred in its brief history. The purpose of this is to properly
frame and guide the ongoing debate over whether or not this law
should continue to be implemented and demonstrate what options
are available and what precedent exists for those who seek to
change or delay the Affordable Care Act further.
