PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Affordable Care Act

How to Cite the Affordable Care Act in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for the Affordable Care Act uses the law's official name, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, then its public law number (Pub. L. No. 111-148), its volume and first page in the Statutes at Large (124 Stat. 119), and the year it was enacted in parentheses (2010), with an optional link to the official text. The in-text citation is the act's name and the year: (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010).

The format

Name of Act, Pub. L. No. xxx-xxx, Volume Stat. Page (Year). URL

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 22, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Choose Statutes (under Legal References), then A federal statute, then Statute cited from Public Law. Type the act's name, a shortened title for your in-text citations, the public law number (111-148), the Statutes at Large volume (124) and starting page (119), the year, and the link if you have one. PERRLA adds Pub. L. No. and Stat., puts the year in parentheses, and alphabetizes the entry on your references page.

Citing the U.S. Code instead? Pick Statute codified in the United States Code and enter the title number (42) and the section. If you type a range of sections, like 18001-18122, PERRLA prints the first one followed by et seq. You can also paste a U.S. Code citation, such as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 42 U.S.C. § 18001 et seq. (2010), into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads it into a statute reference with the name, title number, section, and year. Check each one against your source before you save.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Name of the act

Start with the act's official name, the one the law gives itself in its first section. For the ACA, that's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Write it in title case, as the law does, with no italics and no "The" in front.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,

"Affordable Care Act," "ACA," and "Obamacare" are popular names, not the act's title. Save them for your own sentences.

2. Public law number

Next comes the public law number, written as Pub. L. No. and the number. The first part is the Congress that passed it (the 111th) and the second is the order it was signed in that Congress (the 148th law). Keep the hyphen.

Pub. L. No. 111-148,

3. Statutes at Large

Give the volume of the United States Statutes at Large, the abbreviation Stat., and the page where the law begins. The ACA starts on page 119 of volume 124. You'll find this citation printed at the top of the public law's first page.

124 Stat. 119

4. Year

Put the year in parentheses, followed by a period. Use the year only: the ACA was signed on March 23, 2010, so the reference takes (2010).

(2010).

If you cite a version that was revised later, PERRLA has a revised year field: the reference shows both years with & rev., and the citation joins them with a slash.

5. URL

A link to the law is optional in APA 7, but it helps your reader. Link to a reliable free copy: GovInfo (the Government Publishing Office) and Congress.gov both host the ACA as passed, and Cornell's Legal Information Institute hosts each U.S. Code section. Don't add a period after the link.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf

6. The U.S. Code form

Much of the ACA also lives in the United States Code, the organized collection of federal laws. To cite it there, give the title number, U.S.C., the section symbol, and the first section. When you mean the whole act, which runs across many sections, add et seq. ("and following").

42 U.S.C. § 18001 et seq. (2010).

Citing one provision? Give that one section, with no et seq.: Section 1557 of the ACA, the nondiscrimination rule, is 42 U.S.C. § 18116.

Examples

The ACA as passed, by public law number

The whole law as Congress passed it and the President signed it on March 23, 2010. This is the form to use when your paper discusses the ACA as a whole, and it's the citation printed on the law itself.

  • Parenthetical citation(Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010)
  • Narrative citationPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)

The ACA in the U.S. Code

The same law, cited at Chapter 157 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code (Sections 18001 through 18122), where the ACA's own provisions are collected. Et seq. tells your reader the act starts at Section 18001 and continues from there. The link is left off here to show that it's optional.

  • Parenthetical citation(Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010)
  • Narrative citationPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)

One section of the ACA: Section 1557

Section 1557 bars discrimination in health programs that receive federal money, and it comes up often in nursing and public health papers on language access and equity. When your point rests on one provision, cite the section where it sits in the U.S. Code. The public law notes that Section 1557 is codified at 42 U.S.C. 18116.

  • Parenthetical citation(Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010)
  • Narrative citationPatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)

The companion law: Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

A week after the ACA, on March 30, 2010, the President signed this second law, which changed several of the ACA's provisions. If your source says "the ACA as amended" or discusses those changes, cite this law too. Its name includes "of 2010," so the short name for the in-text citation drops it: the year already follows.

  • Parenthetical citation(Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, 2010)
  • Narrative citationHealth Care and Education Reconciliation Act (2010)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a law gives the act's name and the year. The name isn't italicized, and there's no author and no page number.

  • Parenthetical: (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010)
  • Narrative: the name in your sentence, the year in parentheses: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) expanded Medicaid eligibility.
  • Names that end in a year: drop the "of 2010" in the citation, since the year follows: (Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, 2010)
  • One provision: name the section in your sentence: Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) prohibits discrimination in federally funded health programs.

Once you've given the full name, you can call it the ACA in your own sentences. Spell out the abbreviation the first time you use it, and keep the citation itself matching the first words of your reference entry, so your reader can find it on the references page.

Common mistakes

  • Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).The law's official short title, in its Section 1, is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. "Affordable Care Act" is a popular nickname, and "Obamacare" never belongs in a reference.
  • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).Act names aren't italicized in APA 7, in the reference or in your sentences.
  • Public Law 111-148, 124 Statutes at Large 119Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119Legal references use the standard legal abbreviations. APA 7 follows the legal citation format for laws instead of its usual reference format.
  • (2010, March 23).(2010).A statute takes the year only. Leave out the month and day the law was signed.
  • 42 U.S.C. 18001 (2010).42 U.S.C. § 18001 et seq. (2010).U.S. Code citations need the section symbol (§). When you mean the whole act, add et seq. so your reader knows it runs past that first section.

Quick checklist

  • The official name: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, not italicized
  • Pub. L. No. 111-148, with the hyphen
  • 124 Stat. 119 for the volume and first page
  • The year only, (2010)
  • An official link, if you include one, with no period after it
  • In text: (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010)

Questions students ask

Is it the Affordable Care Act or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

In the reference, use the official name, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That's the title Section 1 of the law gives itself. In your own sentences, you can introduce it as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and use ACA after that.

Should I cite the public law number or the U.S. Code?

Either is correct. The public law form (Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119) cites the act exactly as it passed in 2010, which suits a paper about the law as a whole or its history. The U.S. Code form (42 U.S.C. § 18001 et seq.) points to where the law is organized today, and it's the better choice for one specific provision. For the act as a whole, pick one form and use it every time.

How do I cite one section of the ACA, like Section 1557?

Cite the U.S. Code section where it's codified: Section 1557 is 42 U.S.C. § 18116. Name the ACA section in your sentence so your reader knows which provision you mean. The public law's text notes the code section next to each section heading.

Do I also need to cite the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act?

Only if you discuss what it changed. It's a separate law (Pub. L. No. 111-152, 124 Stat. 1029), signed a week after the ACA, and it gets its own reference entry. If you're writing about the ACA generally, the ACA's own reference is enough.

Can I cite HealthCare.gov or an HHS page instead of the law?

Cite whatever you actually read. If you used a HealthCare.gov or HHS page that explains the law, cite that page as a webpage by a government agency. If you're making a point about what the law itself says, cite the statute. Rules that HHS wrote to carry out the ACA are regulations, cited from the Code of Federal Regulations.

Do I need a URL for the Affordable Care Act?

No. APA 7 treats the link as optional for laws, because the citation itself tells your reader where to find the text. If you add one, use a reliable free copy, such as GovInfo or Congress.gov for the law as passed.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 11.1–11.3 and 11.5, which follow the legal citation format of The Bluebook. Example sources verified against the official text of Pub. L. No. 111-148 and Pub. L. No. 111-152 on GovInfo and the U.S. Code sections on the Legal Information Institute.

PERRLA builds the Affordable Care Act reference from its public law number or U.S. Code section, with the legal abbreviations and the year in the right place.

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