DescriptionThis paper examines health care reform in the United States with a focus on the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. Examining past and current trends in health care in the United States, this paper analyzes why health care reform was possible in 2010 when attempts to reform the health care system have failed in the past. Four years after the passage of the ACA, key provisions of the law are beginning to take effect, and the rate of uninsured Americans has dropped. However, public opinion about health reform continues to waver. Relying on support from contemporary accounts from the media, private sector surveys, government releases and commentary from health care scholars, this paper argues that opponents of health care reform used strategic arguments to capitalize on the existing disapproval for health care reform to further dissuade public support and create anxiety about the new law.