1978: Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Requires coverage of pregnancy/childbirth to be same as other medical conditions.
1982: Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Requires employers to be the primary payer of health care bills for employees staying on the job after age 65.
1986: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Allows employees and dependents to continue paying the full group rate for employer-provided health care coverage after death, divorce or termination of employment.
1993: Family and Medical Leave Act. Guarantees up to 12 weeks of annual unpaid job-protected leave and continuation of health care benefits for employees who take time off because of a family situation, such as the birth of a child, or because of an employee's own illness.
1994: Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Requires employers to extend COBRA-like coverage to activated reservists and their families.
1996: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Curbs the ability of health care plans to deny coverage for new employees' pre-existing medical conditions.
1996: Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act. Requires health plans to provide at least 48 hours of inpatient coverage following childbirth.
1996: Mental Health Parity Act. Bars health care plans from offering discriminatory annual and lifetime dollar limitations for mental health care services.
1997: Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Creates a federal program administered by the states to provide health insurance coverage for children in low-income families.
1998: Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act. Requires health plans that cover mastectomy to provide coverage for reconstructive surgery following mastectomies.
2003: Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act. Adds a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program starting in 2006. Gives employers with retiree health care plans big subsidies if they retain prescription drug coverage. Creates tax-favored health savings accounts.
2006: Tax Relief and Health Care Act. Makes it easier for employees to transfer balances from health reimbursement arrangements to HSAs and eliminates the link between the maximum HSA contribution to the deductible in the health plan connected to the HSA.
2008: Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Requires group health care plans to provide the same coverage for mental disorders as other medical and surgical conditions.
2009: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Provides a 65% federal subsidy of COBRA premiums for employees who are involuntarily terminated between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009.
2009: Department of Defense Appropriations Act. Lengthens the maximum period of time involuntarily terminated employees can obtain the 65% federal COBRA premium subsidy to 15 months from nine months and extends subsidy eligibility to those losing their jobs through Feb. 28, 2010.