May 2013 | Joel C. Cantor | Opinion: The Next Challenge for Obamacare — Finding and Enrolling the Uninsured
The road to national health reform has been rough, to say the least. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed Congress three years ago in a cliffhanger vote following the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy and subsequent loss of the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority. Then the law survived its historic Supreme Court challenge mostly unscathed.
Today, the national health overhaul appears to be withstanding ongoing partisan bickering, with the important exception of a few states in which the Medicaid expansion will apparently not be implemented. The main provisions of the law will go into effect in a few short months. Closer to home, recent decisions from the Christie Administration make the reform path clear in New Jersey — the federal government will run our health insurance exchange and Medicaid eligibility will be expanded to thousands of uninsured low-income individuals and families.