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…among those of us who support Obamacare, did we ever reach a consensus as to whether “Obamacare” is a derogatory term? I ask because last year, in the course of reporting out some editorial for the Globe, I dropped the term in conversation with a researcher at a left-leaning think tank and got slightly chewed out for it. But more recently, I’ve heard people use it in a positive way, and it just rolls off the tongue (or fingers) way smoother than “health care reform” or “the Affordable Care Act.”
I don’t like the idea of what should be a neutral term becoming off-limits simply because reform opponents use it negatively, but on the other hand I just had a late lunch of a convenience-store soft pretzel (700 calories, 94% of my daily sodium… USA! USA!), so I’m probably not qualified to comment on anything related to health care.
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truthbetold on February 11, 2012 3:27 PM:
Why do we have to submit to their negative terms? The President himself likes it being called Obamacare because as he put it he does care and the name suits him. We care, why aren't they? It is time the left grows some and make things in their terms.
RollaMO on February 11, 2012 3:28 PM:
I hope people do continue to call it Obamacare, and years from now it will clearly be noted as his achievement, something people don't automatically do with Johnson and Medicare.
RD Padouk on February 11, 2012 3:28 PM:
I've always liked the term Obamacare for just the reasons you describe. I think that Obama has actually embraced it.
And I would always go for the cinnamon pretzel. Because, you know, cinnamon is s'posed to be good for you.
max on February 11, 2012 3:34 PM:
I think all of these kinds of terms - Obamacare, Romneycare, Hillarycare, etc. - are all negative terms based on who uses it and the context in which it is used, i.e., almost always in a negative, attack mode. I'm frankly surprised the President likes it, if that is even true, and I agree it will turn out to be a very good thing for the country in the end.
beep52 on February 11, 2012 3:38 PM:
Well, it's really the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And though patient protection gets left off, it's hugely important (pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps, etc.).
Labeling it Obamacare was nothing but an attempt by the Right to gloss over the act's real accomplishments, and instead, tie the act to a person their constituents already viewed with contempt.
The Obamacare moniker is nothing but propaganda. I never use it -- in part because not using it makes it look more like the manipulation it really is.
c u n d gulag on February 11, 2012 3:41 PM:
My Aunt and Uncle, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew are coming over for brunch with my sick father tomorrow.
And I'm making my famous crab-meat, sauteed red & green bell pepper/3-different kinds of mushroom/green onion, and cheddar/swiss/provalone/American ('cause I don't want to be accused of being a traitor), 2-egg omelete's.
I also bought cream cheese to put on the "everything (bad)" bagels I got - so I can't lecture anyone about nutrition.
Oh, yeah, and mimosa's for everyone, tomorrow at noon at my house!
Come on over!
Oh, and I LIKE the term Obamacare - because he do, and they don't!
AMS on February 11, 2012 3:54 PM:
I was at the American Bar Association convention in Toronto last summer (why Toronto for the ABA? don't ask me!) and attended a panel discussion that included former NYT Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse. A man in the audience asked a question about the constitutionality of "Obamacare" and she gave him an icy stare and said, "We don't call it Obamacare! It's the Affordable Care Act."
I think the term originated in an effort to demean health care reform but is becoming increasingly accepted by supporters, particularly after Obama's "They're right; I do care" comment.
Pat Cunningham on February 11, 2012 3:59 PM:
I'm a progressive blogger, and I use the term "ObamaCare" all the time. I see nothing pejorative about it, no matter the intentions of the wingnuts who popularized the term in their circles.
The more we libs use the term, the better. Besides,it just strikes me as preferable to "Affordable Care Act" or "ACA," both of which are too sterile.
Daryl on February 11, 2012 4:07 PM:
I don't use the pejorative term, even as I appreciate Obama's attempt at reframing it. For me it's always the ACA.
Should start referring to ourselves as members of the Democrat Party?
James on February 11, 2012 4:14 PM:
I proudly call it Obamacare and love it! And especially when talking with wingnuts, I go out of my way to talk about Obamacare. And especially when explaining to ordinary and uninformed people about the new plans, or the coming benefits. "Thanks to Obamacare, you can add your 24-year-old deadbeat son to your plan." "Thanks to Obamacare, there is a pre-existing condition plan where you can get insurance and can't be turned down." "Under Obamacare, they can't deny your little girl insurance because of her condition." A lot of people don't actually know about this, yet.
An added benefit -- It pisses the wingnuts off. heh heh.
CJ on February 11, 2012 4:19 PM:
ObamaCare is a direct descendent of HillaryCare, a Frank Luntz, focus-group tested and approved term to imply a top down, government health care system that chips away at our freedoms and results in inferior care, assuming we ever make it to the front of the line. They use it because it works, and as we've seen, they're continually making the effort to generate evidence to support the term's false implications. Personally, I'm offended by the term, due to the lies that it's intended to project, and prefer the "Affordable Care Act."
That the "liberal" media has accepted ObamaCare doesn't mean that we have to. I don't say ObamaCare, and while we're on the subject, I don't say "death" tax either (another lie).
emjayay on February 11, 2012 4:20 PM:
I'm with the Daryl faction. "Obamacare" equals "big government forcing things down your throat and controlling your life while stealing all your hard earned money and spending it on undeserving lazy minorities particularly black people like the illegitimate president." I'm sorry, but that is the context in which it has been used thousands of times, and that's how language works.
ACA is a crappy name, but MedicAid and Medicare were already taken, and it's not Government Health. MedInsure? AllCare? It's unfortunate no one came up with a snappy nonbureaucratic sounding name.
John McKay on February 11, 2012 4:26 PM:
I think it's mostly negative. The right certainly uses it a sneering scare term hoping to turn it into a liability like they did "liberal" for the last thirty-five years.
Even if it was neutral, I would be against using it. This king of personalizing detracts from the actual content of the legislation and ties approval of the legislation into a referendum of whether or not you like Obama. That is, when you call it Obamacare, people who don't like Obama are immediately inclined to hate it and anything about it.
When you call it "health care reform" or the "Affordable Care Act" you neutralize it a little, but people are still inclined to think about it as nothing more than the individual mandate, which almost everyone hates.
However, when you mention actual elements of the legislation, like no discrimination for preexisting conditions, you force people to think about it. If someone hates Obamacare and thinks it should be repealed, a position most Republicans and a lot of independents will rally around, ask if that means they want to open the doughnut hole or throw college kids off their parents' insurance or repeal tax credits for the smallest businesses to buy insurance. Most will back off from a blanket hostility.
It's always a bad idea to let the other side define your terms, like saying "Social Security reform" when we mean "privitization" and "benefit cuts." Democrats and liberals are really bad at that game. We used to be better at it. We need to relearn that skill.
JW on February 11, 2012 4:31 PM:
The term 'Obamacare'? Really? You're really in minutia territory (Benen would be proud). It was just another in a long line of really dumb, genuinely idiotic republican battle cries. Deny it, appropriate it, do with it what you will. Who gives a fuck?
Marmot on February 11, 2012 4:43 PM:
Like several others above, I know it's a pejorative term, and I don't use it. "Healthcare reform" is just fine, thanks.
But really, it only makes me actually angry when I hear someone in the press do it, like a Texas Tribune guy on the Austin NPR affiliate last month. WTF? Can't they be bothered to keep Repubs from defining the terms?
But hey, if it survives another three years, I'll be happy to call it Obamacare. By then it'll be clear what a better deal it represents.
CJ on February 11, 2012 4:46 PM:
JW: Who gives a fuck?
JW read the post, clicked on the comments link, typed his comment, filled in the CAPTCHA words, and then submitted his comment. Who gives a fuck? Clearly, JW does.
Scrooge McDuck on February 11, 2012 4:51 PM:
"Obamacare" doesn't bother me at all (although, given the way it was arrived at, maybe "Congresscare" would be a better name." You have to call it something, and there's nothing intrinsic in the name that is derogatory.
cld on February 11, 2012 4:53 PM:
A lot of terms that start out pejoratively have ended up as the proper terms for something,
Cubism, Fauvism, and lately Queer has come out of the closet.
Obamacare.
Own it.
James on February 11, 2012 4:54 PM:
It's only pejorative if you allow it to be. Grab it back from the wingnuts and use it proudly. Don't let the bastards get you down.
JS on February 11, 2012 5:03 PM:
I think we're in an 'in-between' period where it's used by some as a pejorative, some as a laudatory. The election will decide the issue (as well as the substantive survival of the bill).
Or to put it another way, "Obamacare" is to the 2012 election what "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" was to the 2008 election.
Blue Girl on February 11, 2012 5:14 PM:
When I use the term, I add an "s" and either write or say "ObamaCares" and if someone tries to correct me, I say "No, he really does..." and continue with the point I was making.
Nancy M on February 11, 2012 5:16 PM:
I blog for a national publication and have started using "Obamacare" in every post about health reform, in part to reclaim it from opprobrium, but more importantly to make sure that people who use the term in search aren't only seeing inaccurate stuff from opponents.
Just now Googled "Obamacare" and after no. 1 Wikipedia, the highest results in natural search are from Obamacare haters But guess what: the first paid search result was clearly bought by Healthcare.gov. Cool!
James on February 11, 2012 5:24 PM:
People already run away from the word "liberal." Don't let the bastards do it again.
lkt on February 11, 2012 5:37 PM:
I don't use the term and it used to annoy the hell out of me when I heard it. However, when President Obama basically said screw them, "I DO care," I no longer got so annoyed at hearing it, but I still don't use the term.
Graychin on February 11, 2012 6:31 PM:
I call it Obamacare. Always have. I like Obama, so I don't consider it derogatory.
And in conversation, people know what I am talking about. The ACA? Not so much.
But I live in Red Oklahoma. We even consider "Okie" to be inoffensive now.
desertflower on February 11, 2012 6:39 PM:
I prefer "ObamaCares" Fixed.
Anonymuos on February 11, 2012 7:16 PM:
Let's not use the pejorative "Yankee", either... :)
Mark Combs on February 11, 2012 7:32 PM:
Doesn't matter what anyone "likes", it was created and intended as a derogatory term. Two paths can be taken: it can be kept in it's original use, or it can be co-opted and turned into something positive. Your choice. By the way, you'll probably never see this; your captcha system sucks rocks through a straw.
Sister Artemis on February 11, 2012 7:42 PM:
I just want to say that I'm REALLY enjoying our substitute teacher's style today - and Jesse, I believe that the pretzels-for-lunch diet is only enhancing your writing. Thanks for eating badly and sharing your zest with us!
As to the question at hand, having embraced "queer" and "bitch" and various other previously-pejoritive terms, I'm fine with sliding "Obamacare" over into the cute-and-acceptable column. But I myself don't use it, having become accustomed to "health reform" or when I remember to say it, "health insurance reform." I just haven't acquired the habit of using the "Obamacare" term.
exlibra on February 11, 2012 7:56 PM:
I don't say "death tax" (inaccurate), and I don't say "Democrat Party" (bad grammar, as well as poor manners). But, "Obamacare"? Loved it from the moment I heard it and don't give a flying duck about the fright wing's intentions when they first coined it. "Hell's paved with good intentions"? *Their* hell will be paved with their ill ones; every time they hear it appropriated by a "flaming commie" like myself ('s what they call me; not what I think of myself.), they suffer from a tad of acid reflux mixed with a dollop of bile. Which is how I like them served.
But then I admit to being partial to well-crafted neologisms. That's why I like "lamestream media" that St Sarah came up with, too.
SYSPROG on February 11, 2012 8:04 PM:
For what it's worth I like ObamaCare...but then I'm a huge fan of Eric Alterman's Why We're LIBERALS.
jharp on February 11, 2012 8:14 PM:
I almost always refer to it as ObamaCare. Here in Indiana I don't think very many folks have even the slightest clue as to what the Affordable Care Act is.
But they sure are against ObamaCare. I have a lot of fun with it.
Cha on February 11, 2012 10:41 PM:
Glad you asked, Jesse.. It was being used negatively by purposely obtuse gopers. Now it's used positively by those who knew its merits and those who are finding out. We own it now.
Bob on February 12, 2012 12:08 AM:
The conservative think tanks have a doctrine on how to take our words, adopt them, internalize them, own them, and then use them as a negative. Obamacare is their word, and if we take it and make it our own, we will have co-opted their negative as our positive. By all means it should be used as our usurpation of their politics. This is what Philip E. Agre writes of in his dissertation on "What is conservatism and what is wrong with it."
Gulf guy on February 12, 2012 2:16 AM:
Hell yes it's derogatory and I will check anyone who says that. It's called the AFFORDABLE CARE ACT for s reason.
pj in jesusland on February 12, 2012 7:47 AM:
The term Obamacare is a short term name designed as part of an overall effort by the GOP to personalize everything the GOP thinks is wrong with America. When the next president takes the helm and the Affordable Care Act continues to deliver 10s of billions in savings it will revert to it's original name.
I am already sick of manufactured Obama criticisms. Wars are ending, defense spending is going down, Osama bin Laden is dead, the economy is improving, the auto industry is recovering, the stock market is at record levels, banks are loaning, inflation is low, the AHCA is gradually demonstrating how it can improve the general level of our nation's health.
I will be very glad when this election is over and Obama is still President. Between now and then we will have to endure hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of superpac-funded criticisms of Obama -- the equivalent of mountains of angry, unsolicited, third-class mail from the NRA. Listening to all those CPAC snippets reminds me of junior high school.
If Congress would just establish a Lying in Public tax and a commission to enforce it we could solve the nation's deficit in a month. Combine that with a Flush Tax for all the people who are full of crap and the deficit will be gone in a week.
Owenz on February 12, 2012 8:42 AM:
In the words of George Castanza, "it's not a lie if you believe it."
Such is the constantly shifting state of play with words like "Obamacare." For liberals, I have a feeling that "Obamacare" could end up being a kind of catch-phrase representing Republicans' desperate need to turn every Obama policy, no matter how middling, moderate or mediocre, into the Greatest Evil Ever Faced by the nation. As in, "remember how crazy Republicans went over 'Obamacare.''"
Oh and btw, these pretzels are making me thirsty.
John Mallinckrodt on February 12, 2012 11:48 AM:
Add me to the pro "Obamacare" faction. This can only be a good thing for Obama and liberalism down the line. Imagine if we had "Johnsoncare" and "FDRsecurity."
The Oracle on February 12, 2012 1:50 PM:
Just add an "S" to it whenever referring to Obamacare. That'll drive Republicans nuts.
Obamacares.
(as in...Obamacares and Republicans don't).