Debate continues on impact of health care act

The nation’s health-care reform act – known officially as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and as “Obamacare” by its critics – just marked its one-year anniversary in March.

Everyone probably remembers the act had an extremely difficult birth, with more than a year of fierce debate over what should and should not be in it. The act finally passed on a party-line vote, with only one Congressional Republican voting for it.

Challenges to the new law were immediately filed by Republican state attorneys general, including Colorado’s own Attorney General John Suthers.

Several lower court opinions have been issued in the…