Many predicted the 2012 election would be a referendum on health care issues, even though exit polls conducted yesterday indicate a deep split remains between voters who support the Affordable Care Act and those who believe it should be fully or partially repealed. Voter sentiment closely mirrors the bitterly divided Congress that, in 2010, passed the health care reform law to expand health care access for approximately 32 million Americans without a single Republican vote. For the last two years, Republicans in Congress have sought to repeal the law – in fact, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney vowed to repeal the law on his first day in office.

“The election results mean that the health care reform law is not going to be repealed,” said former U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, who serves as a senior policy advisor at Arent Fox, LLP. “The law has already started to provide health coverage to people who didn’t have it. Now 30 million Americans will have insurance, which is a good thing. Now both parties need to turn their attention to finding a way to control and reduce health care costs.”

In fact, health care providers expect a flurry of Affordable Care Act regulations to be released in the next few weeks, an indication of how politically charged health care reform has remained. Long-anticipated rules providing guidance to insurers, health care providers, and states on how to implement the law and codify privacy and security rules mandated by the HITECH Act dealing with enforcement, breach notification, and penalties were simply too controversial to be released prior to Election Day.

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