On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and on March 30, 2010, H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, a companion package of "fixes" to H.R. 3590, was signed into law. Taken together, the two measures make the most profound changes to our country's private-market health care system in 50 years.

Many provisions of the new health reform law impact American employers and private health insurance consumers immediately, while others take effect over the course of the next eight years.