Introduction: The Affordable Care Act as a National Experiment -- Objectives of the ACA -- Delivering on the Promise of the Affordable Care Act -- What We Got (and What Might Have Been): A Distinctively American Approach -- Commentary to Section II: Conducting the Experiment -- The Affordable Care Act as an Experiment: Data We Have, Expect to Have, and Should Have, from a Vermont Pilot Study -- The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation: Its Purpose, Processes, and Desired Outcomes -- The Dream of a National Health Information Technology Infrastructure -- Results from a Massachusetts Pilot Study -- Commentary to Section III: Engaging the Public -- The Value Proposition for Individuals and the Public -- Messaging, Medicine, and Obamacare -- Commentary to Section IV: From Personal to Political to Policy: What Next? -- Supreme Court Review of the ACA and Political Gamesmanship -- Medicaid Expansion Challenges States -- Next Experiments in ACA Legislation and Policy -- Epilogue.

This book examines the landmark 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) from the perspective that health policy innovation is translational research directed at improving health.  It delineates a new perspective about the creation and potential impact of the ACA and guides the development of health policy that is supported by best evidence that, in turn, transforms into practice, policy, and public benefit. Told by those involved in the creation and implementation of the ACA, the book reviews the history and impact of this ground-breaking legislation and recommends priorities, objectives, and next steps for translational research as the ACA is implemented.   Featuring contributions from nationally renowned leaders in healthcare policy, this book adds to the public conversation about the ACA and its role in shaping health policy and contributes to a more realistic, nuanced, and productive understanding of this ground-breaking legislation by physicians, policy makers, and the public. It also provides a framework for next steps in continuing to improve U.S. health policy.