The passage of healthcare reform in March 2010 (through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) was an important and in many ways dramatic political event. The Obama administration and congressional Democrats succeeded where their predecessors had failed.
During the mid-1960s, President Lyndon Johnson secured congressional backing for the creation of Medicare (which provided assistance for senior citizens) and Medicaid (which ensured that some of those on low incomes received medical treatment), but these reforms were targeted at groups that faced particular difficulties. There was little progress towards the universal systems of health coverage (provided either through taxation or compulsory insurance) that were long established in Europe. Instead, by the end of the twentieth century, US health provision consisted of a patchwork of limited government schemes, employer-based health insurance, and individual insurance policies.
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