Why did Barack Obama create Obamacare?

Answer 1

The main reason was because he believed it would help people. This is not a new issue for him-- when he was a state senator in Illinois, he worked very hard on improving health care access. It was an issue he cared about a lot, as did his wife, who was a hospital administrator at that time. In Illinois, his advocacy on health care was very popular, so perhaps he thought he would receive a similar reaction when he tried to pass health care reform as president.

It should also be noted that "Obamacare" (really called the Affordable Care Act) had been in the making for a long time. Bill Clinton tried to pass something similar during his presidency, but failed. Mitt Romney enacted an almost identical law when he was governor of Massachusetts, but had to walk away from it when he ran for president because Republicans (who first thought up some of the provisions, including the Mandate) now were opposed to it. Mr. Obama decided the issue of expanding access to more people would be a good one to tackle, since it could benefit millions of Americans. He seemed genuinely surprised by how much resistance there was to a bill that at one time, Republicans supported.