Blog - U.S. Law: All Americans Should Have Health Insurance

We’ve been tracking the health care reform bill for more than a year on OpenCongress, but today our coverage of the bill takes a sharp turn. The health care bill, H.R. 3590, is Public Law No: 111-148. President Obama signed the bill into law this morning at 11:20 eastern, officially putting an end to the legislative process and transferring it into the process of being implemented by the states and the federal government. We’ll be continuing to cover health care reform as it takes effect and the public debate evolves.

To clarify, the Senate is still working on finalizing an amendment to the health care bill, known as the Reconciliation Act of 2010, but regardless of whether that passes, health care reform has been entered in the Federal Register and will begin taking effect immediately. Here’s a quick roundup of handy links.

• Final text of the legislation — 425,157 words, 2,500 pages of legales. Get the details.
• Timeline of when different parts of the bill take effect (pdf) — some tax credits start retroactively at the beginning of 2010, most of the bill kicks in in 2014, and it is fully implemented by 2018.
• Washington Post tool to see how you will be affected — Answer a few questions, plug in your income and get a bare bones description on how her will affect your insurance coverage and taxes.
• The Massachusetts health exchange — As Ezra Klein explains, the new exchanges are probably the most important element of the reform. They are based off the health reform that was done under Mitt Romney in MA. Try out the original MA version for a basic understanding of how it will work (sample zip: 01084).
• The Republicans’ repeal bill — legislatively, this bill “to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” is where the Republican fight is now.
• Public Option Act — and this is where the progressive fight is, a stand-alone measure to allow people to allow all citizens the option of buying into Medicare.
• Video of the signing ceremony — watch history be made.
• Biden’s take — wise words on the significance of the bill from the gaffe master himself.