Over the years, America’s health care system has been called a lot of things.

It’s been described as a “shambles.”

Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy once deemed it “the fastest-growing failing business in the nation.”

But more than 50 years ago, union leaders dubbed health care as “a basic human right.”

This year’s passage of health care reform was the achievement of a goal the UAW has championed since its founding.

In the 1960s UAW President Walter Reuther formed a Committee of 100 for National Health Insurance, an alliance of labor unions and liberal activists. “… In no area of our national life is there a greater gap between promise and performance than in health care,” said Reuther, the committee’s chair, in 1969.

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed sweeping health care reform legislation into law, and later signed a corrections bill completing the action.

The corrections bill contained many improvements sought by the labor movement and our progressive allies, including improving the subsidies for middle-income families, postponing and scaling back the excise tax on health care plans, and phasing out the “doughnut hole” in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.

Enactment of the health care reform legislation was the culmination of more than a year of debate and many hard-fought battles in the current Congress. But in another sense, the nation had waged this fight for nearly a century.

Seeing health care costs continually rise, presidents and members of Congress from both parties have grappled with this issue ever since President Theodore Roosevelt called for a national plan in 1912. For many reasons, past attempts at reform have largely fallen short.

But not this time.

In a 219-212 vote on March 21, the House passed the most significant domestic legislative package in more than 40 years. The new law puts us on a path to provide health care coverage for all Americans, empowers consumers over insurance companies, and ensures we are moving to reduce health care costs over the long term.

Here’s a look at how the new health care reform law will benefit America’s working families and small businesses.

Jennifer John

Gettelfinger: "We’re going to get it done"

UAW retirees greet President Ron Gettelfinger at a 2007 health care rally on the opening day of auto talks with GM.

"UAW members have fought for decades to expand access to quality, affordable health care.

This legislation will extend health insurance to tens of millions of Americans who currently have no coverage.

It will end abuses by insurance companies and guarantee that no one is denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And it will offer realistic controls on health care costs with reforms to provider payment and delivery practices. America has tried seven different times to pass comprehensive health care reform.

In 2010 we're going to get it done – and we’ll continue to work in the future to improve quality, affordability and access to health care for all Americans."

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger
in a Jan. 14, 2010, statement