You're misremembering. The ACA was signed into law in March 2010, barely a year after Obama's first term started, and it took that long only because he tried to get (at least some) Republicans on board. But the first order of business was digging out of the Great Recession.

No this article is from June 2009, before Congress picked up ACA. What I misremember is that it passed the house but didn't pass the Senate. Obama was sworn in Jan 20, 2009.

House passes landmark climate change bill
By Reuters
June 27, 2009
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama scored a major victory on Friday when the House of Representatives passed legislation to slash industrial pollution that is blamed for global warming.
The Democratic-controlled House passed the climate change bill, a top priority for Obama, by a vote of 219-212. As has become routine on major bills in Congress this year, the vote was partisan, with only eight Republicans joining Democrats for the bill. Forty-four Democrats voted against it. reuters.com - House passes landmark climate change bill

Obama and Pelosi pulled out all the stops and it was in the news for 3 months. So this got heavily worked on before the ACA, but thanks for the tip.