A name can be a tricky thing.
Take for example, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. During the campaign to pass the landmark legislation in 2010, opponents of the then-proposed law facetiously labeled it "Obamacare." Supporters were quick to assume ownership of the moniker, though. It made sense, actually — there was a time when President Barack Obama's approval rankings weren't hovering around 40 percent. Aligning the legislation with so popular a president guaranteed support from a lot of people. Obama himself even referred to PPACA as Obamacare.
Now fast forward a few years. Opponents were quick to seize on Obamacare's botched exchange rollouts, policy cancellations and higher premiums in an effort to discredit one of the most sweeping domestic policies to come along since Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. All of a sudden, critics who used the term "Obamacare" were racists. The Associated Press and NPR began limiting their use of the term. Now that the administration says 8 million people have signed up for health insurance through exchanges, the vitriol has died down somewhat, but the Obamacare name game is sure to continue.
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