Law360, New York (November 6, 2012, 12:00 AM EST) -- When he assumed the Office of the President in 2009, President Obama focused as a policy priority on tackling the monumental issue of ensuring access to affordable health care. This focus resulted, after an arduous and hard-fought battle in Congress, with the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare" or the ACA. This controversial law already has survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge largely intact, and the next major hurdle to overcome is how this law will be changed in the coming years in light of other equally important federal budget issues, a ballooning federal deficit, and fundamental changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs to address further systemic cost containment and delivery system and payment reforms....