On February 17th 2009, President Barack Obama signed his first law.  He passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment act.  This was a bill passed to provide relief to low income families, open up jobs,  and help pay for medicare, so that no one is left without it health insurance.  This was a major problem in America, however many people were and still are against it, believing that it will not help fix the issue of urban poverty.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton was just elected to his second term in office.  He had strived for universal health care before it was shut down, in 1994.  In 1997 his wife started a universal health care for children, which became very popular.  He was never able to achieve universal health care for everyone throughout his 8 years in presidency.  Clinton had  a similar goal as obama when he strived for universal health care to bring relief to the needy.

http://www.recovery.gov/About/Pages/The_Act.aspx