On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to sign a "universal" health care bill. The last time we looked at how the president was doing, we rated the promise In the Works, since all three health care reform bills then being considered by Congress included a requirement for people to buy health insurance, often called an "individual mandate."

On March 23, 2010, after months of deliberation, Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Read our summary of the new health care law.) For purposes of this promise, however, section 5000A is the most important. Titled "Requirement to Maintain Minimum Essential Coverage," it reads: "An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month. ... In general, if an applicable individual fails to meet the requirement ... for one or more months during any calendar year beginning after 2013, then, except (for hardship cases) there is hereby imposed a penalty" on a predetermined schedule.

In other words, unless the insurance premiums exceed 8 percent of your income, you're a religious objector, a taxpayer with income below the tax-filing threshold, or a member of an Indian tribe, you're required to have insurance. That is, unless you'd rather pay the penalty, which is enforced through the tax code system.

Starting in 2014, the penalty for not having coverage is $95 per individual or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. By 2016, that amount climbs to $695 per individual, or 2.5 percent of income. All of this is assuming that the penalty does not exceed the price of a basic health care plan.

Some health care experts, however, argue that the penalty is too low to push Americans into buying a health care plan. According to an April 2010 report by the Congressional Budget Office, "about 4 million people are projected to pay a penalty because they will be uninsured in 2016."

There is also a pending lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate. On March 23, 2010, the same day that Obama signed the health care reform bill, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, along with 13 other Republican AGs, filed a lawsuit against the federal government. "The federal government cannot mandate that all citizens buy qualifying health care coverage or be forced to pay a tax penalty -- this is unconstitutional," McCollum said. The case will likely end up before the Supreme Court, according to legal experts. The White House, along with the U.S. Justice Department, maintains that the suit will fail.

President Obama signed a bill earlier this year that mandates -- with certain exemptions -- that every American buy health insurance. Not doing so means paying a penalty. The bill's intent is that as many Americans as possible have health insurance, getting very close to universal coverage. On the other hand, there's a pending lawsuit against the individual mandate. There are also questions about the penalty for the uninsured, and how effectively it will push the uninsured to buy or sign up for health insurance. Still, a future mandate for health insurance is now enshrined in law. We'll keep watching how things unfold, but for now, this is a Promise Kept.

Editor's note: This promise originally read, "I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year." We decided to make the second part of Obama's promise about premium costs into a separate promise, since cost and coverage are not necessarily related. It's now promise 521, "Cut the cost of a typical family's health insurance premium by up to $2,500 a year".