In the state legislature, the act was spearheaded by the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Barack Obama.

[4] The act created a task force and "strongly encouraged" the Illinois General Assembly to implement a health care access plan by July 1, 2007, that would meet eight objectives including providing access to a full range of healthcare services, maintaining and improving healthcare quality, and providing "portability of coverage, regardless of employment status".

After the federal Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, the General Assembly repealed the HCJA and created the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange.

This plan includes: access to a full range of preventive, acute, and long-term health care services; maintaining and improving the quality of healthcare in Illinois; coverage regardless of employment status; cost-containment measures; reviewing and implementing multiple approaches to preventive medicine based on new technologies; and promotes affordable coverage for small business market.

And finally, Section 25 requires that the Adequate Healthcare Task Force will hold public hearings in all Congressional Districts for community input on the issues of the HCJA.

[9] It announced the resulting plan on December 7, 2006, with support from hospitals, unions, doctors, and consumer rights and healthcare advocacy groups.

"[13] The Expansion Plan focused on balancing the spending and getting all the support to get enough funding so that all Illinoisans can receive good health care.

[16] Later in 2007, Blagojevich tried again, issuing an emergency order that would have loosened the rules for eligibility under the state FamilyCare program, giving health insurance benefits to an additional 717,000 people.

[20] In 2008 Blagojevich proposed a scaled-back version, called Illinois Covered Choice, which would create a state-subsidized insurance pool.

[19] In 2009, following Blagojevich's impeachment and removal from office and in the midst of the debate over the federal Affordable Care Act, the Chicago weekly Newcity opined that in these healthcare reform initiatives, "our ex-governor was ahead of his time".

A widely published Associated Press piece in January 2007 listed it among the "potentially explosive land mines" in his record as a state senator.