INSTITUTE INDEX: The partisan fight over health care reform

Date on which President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act implementing comprehensive health care reform: 3/23/2010

Date when a group of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional in part because of its mandate that all Americans buy insurance: 3/23/2010

Decade when the mandate to purchase insurance was first proposed by Republicans: 1990s

Number of states that have joined the lawsuit to date: 26

Of those states, number with Democratic attorneys general: 1*

Number of states involved in the lawsuit that applied for grant money provided by the law to take action against insurers seeking unreasonable rate hikes: 19

Number of states involved in the lawsuit that are claiming subsidies provided by the law for retired state government employees: 8

Date on which U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson of Virginia, a Republican, struck down the insurance mandate while letting the rest of the law stand: 12/13/2010

Date on which U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida, also a Republican, ruled the entire law invalid because of the insurance mandate: 1/13/2011

Date that the Justice Department said it would appeal Vinson's ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals: 1/31/2011

Of the two other federal judges in Virginia and Michigan who have upheld the law's constitutionality, number that are Democrats: 2

Date on which the Republican-controlled U.S. House vote to fully repeal health care reform: 1/19/2011

Number of House Democrats who voted for repeal: 3**

Date when an effort to repeal the health care reform law died in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate on a party-line vote: 2/2/2011

Date on which Virginia's Republican-controlled House of Delegates passed a bill to nullify federal health care reform by reviving the doctrine of "interposition" last used to defend Jim Crow: 1/26/2011

Date on which North Carolina's Republican-controlled House passed a bill exempting residents from the insurance purchase mandate and ordering the state's independently elected Democratic attorney general to join the legal challenge: 2/2/2011

Amount by which the Congressional Budget Office estimated the health care reform law would reduce the deficit over the first decade: $143 billion

Over the second decade: $1.2 trillion

Estimated amount that the health care reform law would save a low-income family of four when it's fully implemented in 2014: up to $14,900

* Louisiana
** Dan Boren  (D-Okla.) Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.)

(Click on figure to go to source.)