Gallup: What's in a Name? Affordable Care Act vs. Obamacare (Support tanks when called Obamacare)

Gallup ^ | November 21, 2013

[Zakeet]

It's a truism in politics that labels matter. When President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate and House passed healthcare reform legislation in 2010, they developed an official name for the law that they thought would convey the positive benefits of the bill: "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." That name has often been shortened to "Affordable Care Act" in the years since its passage, but the bill has also come to be known as "Obamacare," a name frequently used by Obama himself. Others simply call it the healthcare law.

The political news site Politico called our attention to the importance of these labels in a story on Tuesday reporting that the Obama administration has shifted to a sole focus on the label “Affordable Care Act.” Politico notes that, “The president didn’t say 'Obamacare' once during his nearly hour-long news conference last week, while he referred to the 'Affordable Care Act' a dozen times.”

It is likely that White House strategists developed the new approach -- perhaps based on internal polling -- under the assumption that the more formal name “Affordable Care Act” would help in the current toxic environment of the negative publicity associated with the troubled rollout of the healthcare exchanges. Additionally, The White House may think that, at this juncture, it is best not to directly reinforce Obama's association with the law.

New Gallup research helps shed light on this issue. We have just completed an experimental test of four different ways to label the healthcare law.

[Zakeet]

The Idiot is becoming more toxic ... each and every day!

[ConservativeInPA]

DUCA - Democrat Unaffordable Care Act

[353FMG]

a.k.a DhimmiCare.

[JediJones]

The poll shows that 5-7% of Americans are really stupid. I’m actually surprised it’s that low.

[JediJones]

There are 7% that love the Affordable Care Act but hate Obamacare.

[alloysteel]

Ten percent of ANY relatively large group of human beings never get the word.

This statistic cuts across all ethnic, educational, religious, and gender bounds. They are the quintessential low-information voters (the lowest of the low, actually), who by their very presence, tends to depress the dissemination of information in the greater cohort. So there is a sort of multiplier effect here if the flow of information is interrupted or reduced in some way.

[Slyfox]

WE have always called it Obamacare.

The leftists always refer to it as the Affordable Care Act.

Score One for We the People!

[Mark]

A.K.A. EdselCare

[tanknetter]

We need a montage of Obama and prominent Dems using the term Obamacare. Just like the one of him saying people could keep their plans, 30+ times.

[Chode]

wonder how they' like this then...

0bama's
Hugh
Socialist
Health
Insurance
Tax

[Hugin]

Obama may not have built that, but he owns it now.

[b4its2late]

Obama was the one calling it Obamacare until it tanked.

[wildbill]

I noticed this myself a couple of weeks ago and started to write a vanity post on the fact that labels and words matter.

Another NO-NO for Republicans should be the use of ‘single-payer’ instead of government insurance program or something that identifies what you are talking about.

Mention ‘single payer’ to 90% of the population and their eyes will glaze over. It is only policy wonks and Dems who want to use ‘single payer’ to obfuscate the issue.

[Pollster1]

Republicans need to start pairing “ObamaCare” with “Affordable Care Act”, pointing out that the misnomer is a triple lie - it is not affordable, it interferes with medical care, and it was not passed properly in Congress. We need to make the ACA misnomer as toxic as the already discredited ObamaCare descriptor.

[MUDDOG]

Call it RobertsCare. He saved it, he owns it.

[loveliberty2]

First of all, whether it is euphemistically called "Obamacare" or "Affordable Care Act," it has nothing to do with "care."

It has to do with "redistributing" the paycheck earnings of millions of Americans from things they want to purchase to things arrogant and busybody politicians want to purchase--things like votes and power for themselves and their cronies.

Second, of all, it is not "affordable" in any sense of the word for any hard-working American who treasures individual freedom and the right to use his/her earnings.

Third, it was an "Act" rammed through in the middle of the night by one Party and its cooperating and coerced members, and signed by a would-be "king" whose edicts rival those of King George III (read the l776 Declaration of Independence in order to compare).

[vigilante2]

Zerocare

[VerySadAmerican]

The dems wanted it to be known as obamacare because they want their king held in the highest esteem. Even Obama, in the debate with Romney, said he liked that it was called obamacare. Now they’re running like hell from it.

This reminds me of 1980. It was hard to find anyone who voted for Carter in 1976.

[Inyo-Mono]

Good point.

[arista]

I’m not sure who is more stupid: the people who support Obamacare, or the people who change their opinion of the law depending on what you call it.