--- title: 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act | TIME description: As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency. canonical: https://time.com/video/S8hGNLNB/ og:title: 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act og:description: As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency. og:url: https://time.com/video/S8hGNLNB/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/S8hGNLNB/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act twitter:description: As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/S8hGNLNB/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S8hGNLNB.m3u8) (2:35)  _Published 2017-01-12. As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:22 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [10 Days that Define the Obama Presidency: The Paris Accords](/video/RNoECeNp/) ### 10 Days that Define the Obama Presidency: The Paris Accords [10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: Zimmerman Verdict](/video/O5QiWvGn/) ### 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: Zimmerman Verdict [10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: Sandy Hook](/video/Zkmy7UcW/) ### 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: Sandy Hook --- ## Transcript Today after almost a century of try, today after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied health insurance perform become law in the United States of America. Where the central Promises of Obama's 2008 campaign was to, in a way, complete the American social safety net, specifically for American's who were working, were not necessarily poor, but who could not afford health insurance and therefore didn't have regular medical care. This is something that most other Western nations Provide their citizens with, what the US hasn't historically. And he did this with a massive bill that did that and many other things. Since in the 1960s when medicare and medicate past which basically guaranteed healthcare for the poor and for the elderly, it has been a priority of democratic leaders going back decades To try and extend that to working people. And so when Obama came on the scene, he was really promising to complete this generation long democratic project. He was able to do it because the win in 2008 had been so grand. It had been such a big win. So for a time, we have a filibuster proof majority In the Senate. He had large majorities in the house. Most americans didn't really understand all the parts of Obamacare. It was a very complicated bill. But they had strong feelings. And those feelings tended to follow their political leanings. They were conservative Republican. They were concerned. It looked like government expansion overreach. They were liberal and fans of the president They embraced it. [ UNKNOWN ] For years, the American people have been calling on Washington, to build a bridge away from Obamacare. The story of republican opposition to Obamacare, isn't about Obamacare. It's about the way Republicans decided to oppose President Barack Obama from the very beginning. They lost the ability in some way to shape the legislation to make it more palatable. But they decided that political opposition made permanent campaign was more beneficial that [ UNKNOWN ]. And the biggest strangers, the most visible ones are the ones that are almost certain to stay but even president- elect Donald Trump wants to keep around are we a very popular visitations around children and the young girls staying at their parents house [ UNKNOWN ]. And they'd be getting rid of pre- existing conditions. That was a tremendous change and really just, a dramatic rethinking of a way insurance has been carried out in this country. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act","description":"As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency. 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