This policy analysis will use the stages heuristic model to describe the development process involved in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion as it pertains to the HIV care continuum. Designed as a retrospective analysis of health reform’s impact on PLWHA, the stages model will divide the policy process into four distinct groups: agenda setting, formulation, implementation, and evaluation. The stages model understands policy development as a linear process through which a policy attempting to solve a problem emerges.