To mark the two year anniversary of President Obama’s signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we’ve written a summary of the most important changes that impact individuals and small businesses who purchase medical insurance. In this article, entitled California Health Insurance Reform Update: March 2012 we describe changes that have occurred since 2010 and changes that are planned for 2014.

We also consider additional issues related to the new law, such as the pending legal challenge to PPACA before the U.S. Supreme Court; the ever-escalating cost of medical care; and the introduction of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) as a method of containing the cost of health care.