The Affordable Care Act would not have been passed if not for Pelosi

Pelosi was a prominent backer of many of Democrat Barack Obama's initiatives after he was elected president in 2009. She helped push through his $787 billion stimulus package in February 2009 and was a key player in the fight to achieve health care reform, which was finally passed in March 2010. The Affordable Care Act, which guarantees protections for all Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, eliminates annual and lifetime coverage caps, and provides affordable health coverage for tens of millions more Americans while bringing down long-term healthcare costs, was crafted by Speaker Pelosi. The landmark legislation made health insurance available to nearly 30 million previously uninsured Americans and forbade insurance companies from refusing to cover people with preexisting diseases.

But in the year preceding that, even Democrats believed that the Act was doomed to failure. According to information, the plan wouldn't receive the support needed in Congress to succeed, therefore President Obama was thinking of taking a piecemeal, stepwise approach aimed at improving child care. Pelosi, though, was adamant about passing the entire Act and working toward its future revision. Obama speculated that she was arguably the best Speaker in history due to her perseverance in negotiating a compromise that won enough votes.