On the insurance side, the federal government will require health plans within 6 months to provide coverage for nondependent children up to age 26 years. The law also bars group health plans from excluding people on the basis of pre-existing conditions starting in 2014. For children, plans will be barred from pre-existing conditions exclusions 6 months after enactment.
During the course of final debate, no Republican member of Congress voted in favor of passing the bills. Republicans railed against the package as bloated and unaffordable at the Congressional Budget Office estimated price tag of $940 billion over 10 years, despite CBO assurance that the legislation also would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the same period.
Republican opponents also said the legislation called for too great a role for the federal government and would interfere with the relationship between patients and their doctors.