health care bill

One of the biggest political question marks going into 2012 is the fate of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Audie Cornish speaks with Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times about what's ahead for Americans in terms of health care in the new year, including a constitutional challenge to the law's mandatory health care provision.

Congress returns Monday to take up what looks like a year's worth of unfinished business: unemployment benefits, gays in the military, expiring tax cuts and funding to keep the government running.

Out of the gate, the Senate will vote on banning earmarks and making a fix to the health care bill. NPR's David Welna tells all to host Liane Hansen.

The 268-160 vote on Wednesday came after passionate floor debate. Democratic supporters said they were standing up for sick Sept. 11 heroes.

Republican critics branded the bill as yet another big-government entitlement program that would boost taxes and kill jobs.

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The passage of the new health care bill is expected to have a wide-ranging effect on members of Congress during the next cycle of elections.

In North Carolina, one of the nation's most powerful labor unions has decided to play a bigger role in the campaigning.

The SEIU is helping to create a new political party to challenge several Democrats they helped elect just two years ago.

Gregory Lee Giusti, 48, was arrested for threatening the House speaker over her support for the health care bill.

The magistrate judge ordered the U.S. attorney's office to determine whether Giusti is mentally competent enough to be released to a halfway house or should be detained.

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Senate Republicans found minor glitches in a health care bill that will force the measure back to the House.

Democrats aren't ruling out the possibility of more flaws.

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One prominent Republican drew the ire of his fellow party members this week by calling the passage of the health care bill the GOP's Waterloo.

But Republicans say the issue has lost none of its power to motivate the opposition in the midterm elections and beyond.

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Sunday, the House passed the most sweeping health care legislation in decades. NPR's political editor Ron Elving explains what's next, and what the deliberations revealed about Congress.

And the Washington Post's Amy Goldstein explains what the landmark bill means for you.

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Across the nation, reaction to the landmark health care legislation that made it through the House late Sunday seemed to echo the bitter division in Washington, drawing either praise or excoriation.

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President Obama said Sunday lawmakers answered the call of history by passing a health care bill. He also noted the enormous political pressures brought to bear on lawmakers who may face political consequences this fall, as voters express doubts about the bill.

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