Affordable Health Care for America Act

At the encouragement of the Obama administration, the 111th Congress devoted much of its time to enacting reform of the United States' health care system.

The central changes that would have been made by the legislation, had it been enacted, included the following: The main House reform bill was the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which passed on November 7, 2009.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the Senate version, passed December 24.

The bill is a revised version of an earlier measure, the proposed America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (HR 3200 [18][19]).

The revisions included refinements designed to meet the goals outlined in the President's address to a joint session of Congress in September, 2009 concerning health care reform.

[23][24] The newly amended bill eventually passed the House of Representatives at 11:19 PM EST on Saturday, November 7, 2009, by a vote of 220–215.

[25] Both before and after passage in the House, significant controversy surrounded the Stupak–Pitts Amendment added to the bill to prohibit coverage of abortions – with limited exceptions – in the public option or in any of the exchange's private plans sold to customers receiving federal subsidies.

[26] Stupak has said that 15–20 Democrats will oppose adoption of the Senate bill because of objections to its abortion provisions as well as its tax on high-value health insurance plans.