
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as Obamacare, was designed to patch the insurance gaps between Medicare, Medicaid, and employer-sponsored health care, which is bolstered by a tax carve-out for workplace benefits. Obamacare was barely two years old when it faced its first challenge at the Supreme Court.
A decade after that first challenge, the law remains on the books. But the outcome of that case has shaped both the health law's evolution and its public perception, leaving Americans with a major federal program that even its fiercest advocates say does not live up to its goals.