Health-care reform: Major moments in history

From Teddy Roosevelt to the high court’s decision to uphold President Obama’s health-care law, here are some of the most significant moments in the history of health-care reform.

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June 28, 2012

The Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in President Obama's health-care legislation, citing Congress' taxing authority.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

1912: The first attempt

Teddy Roosevelt runs for president on a platform that includes health-care reform. He loses.

/ AP

1935: Not along for the ride

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is forced to remove publicly funded health care from Social Security legislation.

/ AP

July 30, 1965: Medicare is born

President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare and Medicaid legislation into law.

/ AP

1974-1976: Nixon plan nixed

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) contributes to the rejection of President Richard Nixon’s push for the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act, saying that the law did not reach far enough. Kennedy also rejected President Jimmy Carter’s Health Security Plan; in his published diary, Carter attributed the law’s failure to a political rivalry between the two.

/ AP

1993: Hillarycare's demise

President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton push for their health-care overhaul plan. It goes down in defeat the following year.

Doug Mills / AP

Nov. 4, 2008: A glimmer of 'hope'

Barack Obama is elected president on a platform that includes an overhaul of the nation's health-care system, which he later called for in a speech before a joint session of Congress.

Jae C. Hong / AP

Sept. 16, 2009: The Baucus bill

After months of work with the bipartisan "Gang of Six," Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) unveils his health-care proposal, but without any Republican backing.

/ AP

Nov. 7, 2009: The first milestone

The House passes the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a margin of 220-215, with just one Republican vote.

Alex Brandon / AP

Dec. 24, 2009: The Senate follows suit

The Senate passes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 60-39, with no Republican votes.

/ Bloomberg News via Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2010: Obama steps in

The White House releases a compromise health-care plan to resolve the differences between the House and Senate bills. A bipartisan summit is held at the White House days later to discuss these differences, but no agreement is reached.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

March 21, 2010: The final hurdle

The House passes the Senate health-care bill without any Republican votes, 219-212.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

March 23, 2010: A stroke of the pen

President Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Senate health-care bill).

Charles Dharapak / AP

March 25, 2010: Patching it up

The Senate (56-43) and House (220-207) approve a reconciliation bill with fixes to the health-care law.

Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

March 30, 2010: Final seal of approval

Obama signs into law the reconciliation bill, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

November 2010 to January 2011: The challenges begin

Federal judges in Virginia and New York rule the law constitutional. Later, a federal judge in Virginia rules that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, while a federal judge in Florida strikes down the entire health-care law.

R. David Duncan III / AP

Nov 14, 2011: Supreme Court to decide constitutionality

After it had progressed through higher level courtrooms, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a multi-state lawsuit brought forth by 26 Republican governors. Previously in this suit, courts had found the individual mandate unconstitutional; however, the mandate could be severed from the rest of the law, which would still stand. An expansion of Medicare was also ruled constitutional.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Nov 8, 2011: A win for Obama

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules the law's individual mandate constitutional. It also says the mandate's penalty fine is not equivilant to a tax — a significant point, because of prior rulings that don't allow taxes to be challenged until they are actually in effect.

Chip Somodevilla / GETTY IMAGES

March 26, 2012: The circus begins

The Supreme Court begins three historic days of oral arguments on the health-care law’s constitutionality, as court cameras and protesters wait outside the building. The first day focused on whether the court could even take the case, citing a 1867 law forbidding challenges on taxes before they go into effect.

Melina Mara / The Washington Post

March 27, 2012: The individual mandate

In the second day of debate on the law, the justices weighed the constitutionality of the individual mandate — the central component of the law that requires individuals who don't recieve health insurance from the government or their employers to either purchase it or pay a fine.

Art Lien / AFP/Getty Images

March 28, 2012: The severability question

The last day of Supreme Court testimony asked the question: If the court rules the individual mandate unconstitutional, can other parts of the law stay in place, or does the entire law need to be thrown out?

Charles Dharapak / AP

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