Obamacare Has Already Transformed U.S. Health Care

More than one of every four Americans last year received a free mammogram, colonoscopy, or flu shot, thanks to a federal law that many of them despise. Roughly 3.6 million Medicare recipients saved an average of $604 as the same law began closing a gap in their prescription drug coverage. And 2.5 million young adults were allowed to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until their 26th birthday.

For two years, even as a debate has raged over what Republicans deride as Obamacare, the new health-care law has begun benefiting consumers and refashioning a $2.6 trillion industry. Insurers, hospitals, and doctors are forming alliances and adopting new procedures, preparing for a reshaped market that will materialize when—or if—the law aimed at covering at least 30 million uninsured Americans is fully implemented in 2018. “This is probably the most transformative period I’ve lived through,” says Dr. David Longworth, chairman of the Medicine Institute at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, who heads teams making the health-care changes there.