Health Care Reform by the Numbers

health Health Reform -- March 23, 2012 at 6:50 PM EDT

Health Care Reform by the Numbers

It's almost judgment day for the health care reform law signed into law two years ago. As the Supreme Court considers next week whether to strike down President Obama's signature domestic accomplishment, all the numbers thrown around for the last two years will be kicked back into the unseasonably hot air hovering over Washington. Here's a cheat sheet of some of the more important ones:

Can't get enough health reform numbers? We thought so. Next, let's see how the Affordable Care Act performed on its latest report card.

While many of the significant provisions of the 2010 health law don't take effect until 2014, some key changes have kicked already kicked in. Our partners at Kaiser Health News consulted the agencies implementing the law to track how some of these new programs are going, and compared that data to the original projections of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Obama administration. Much of the available data covers a limited period -- usually through the end of 2011 or the fiscal year ending Sept. 2011.

Click the button below to take a look:

Stay with the PBS NewsHour March 26-28 for the latest on the health reform law's Supreme Court proceedings. Each evening on the NewsHour broadcast, Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal and Susan Dentzer of Health Affairs will offer a summary and analysis of the day's arguments. Catch their preview here. And of course, check the NewsHour's Health Page regularly for more online-exclusive content.

Have a question about the Affordable Care Act or the Supreme Court case? Ask them here and on Twitter using hashtag #HCRchat.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.