Health Care Reform: 2017 Year-In-Review
Because California embraced the opportunities available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 2017 began and ended with California reaching historic low rates of uninsured. The uninsured rate in California was 7.1 percent at the end of 2016 falling to 6.8 percent in the first half of 2017. Throughout 2017, this achievement was threatened with ongoing federal efforts to “repeal and replace” the ACA.
Although most proposals to rollback the ACA failed to pass, in December, the sweeping federal tax bill passed by Congress eliminated the tax penalty for individuals who do not maintain coverage as required in the ACA effective in 2019.
The timeline below reviews notable health reform events for 2017 and includes links to source documents and related ITUP publications.