Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Overview.

Abstract

The intent of this supplemental online issue of the American Journal of Public Health is to provide a broad view of various topics pertaining to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), its implementation, its effect, and problems that remain to be addressed. The articles included here are successful in achieving this goal. As would be expected, many of the articles focus on the impact of the ACA on particular vulnerable populations, but there is also discussion of the need for public education on what is available and on what remains to be done to fill in remaining gaps in health insurance coverage. The article by Greer and Mendez1 provides an international context for the ACA and provides a perspective that is relevant to the controversies that have surrounded the ACA. This article reminds us that universal health coverage, a goal that the ACA moves toward but does not fully achieve, is redistributive, tends to be favored by left-leaning parties, and is very difficult to take away once it has been provided.