One year after passage, US health care battle as strong as ever

Mar 23, 2011, 18:52 GMT

Washington - While a series of world crises have captured the US public's attention in recent weeks, President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats were quietly celebrating the one-year anniversary Wednesday of their signature domestic achievement.

The biggest overhaul of the United States' health care system in four decades was signed into law by Obama on March 23, 2010, but the success has done little to end years of divisive debate among US lawmakers over the course of the health care industry.

The major reforms aimed to bring down costs and extend access to health insurance to about 30 million US residents that have no coverage. The overhaul sharply divided the public and has prompted dozens of legal challenges by US states that object to a provision requiring Americans to purchase health insurance as of 2014.

Conservative Republicans have vowed to repeal the law, calling it a government takeover of the health industry and arguing it does not lower costs in one of the developed world's most expensive systems.

'We'll do everything we can to ensure that ObamaCare is never fully implemented,' John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, said on the anniversary, calling the law 'unpopular, unaffordable and unconstitutional.'

Obama's fellow Democrats have sought to turn around public perception of the law this year as some of its measures began taking effect, including barring insurance companies from excluding people with pre-existing health conditions from their plans.

'With this legislation health care will be a right, not a privilege, for all Americans,' Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats' minority leader in the House, said of the anniversary.

The reform's key provision - requiring Americans to purchase health insurance - is almost certain to be argued in front of the US Supreme Court before it becomes law in 2014.

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