![\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ADoctor_examines_patient_(1).jpg;](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/08\/800px-Doctor_examines_patient_1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Just a small ah-ha moment here during lunch break.<\/p>\n
How often have you heard the following?<\/p>\n
People who want to repeal Obamacare don\u2019t realize all the great things it includes: \u00a0the expansion of Medicaid, the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and lifetime maximums, the requirement that adults up to age 25 can remain dependents on a health plan, and so on. \u00a0None of these things can be taken away without causing a great deal of uproar, and, besides, they\u2019re fools, and the fact that they don\u2019t realize that Obamacare and the ACA are the same thing means that they don\u2019t have anything of value to contribute to the discussion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But there is no \u201cofficial\u201d definition of Obamacare, and it seems to me that, in practice<\/em>, Obamacare is not<\/strong> the same thing as the ACA. \u00a0In common usage, Obamacare refers specifically to the purchase of health insurance on a state or federal exchange, and the types of plans available on those exchanges \u2014 high deductibles, narrow networks, repeated premium increases, and the decreasing selection of providers, as more and more insurers withdraw from one market or another, and the so-called \u201cco-ops\u201d that were intended to offer more choices, have failed. \u00a0 More expansively, Obamacare includes the so-called \u201cthree-legged stool\u201d of mandates and premium supports meant to make the elimination of pre-existing condition restrictions feasible.<\/p>\n
All these other provisions of the ACA, that expanded existing government programs and increased government regulation for private health insurance? \u00a0Not Obamacare. \u00a0Like Medicare, Obamacare is a specific program \u2014 the exchanges, and the plans available on them \u2014 not a nickname for an extremely broad piece of legislation.<\/p>\n
Which further means that you can repeal \u201cObamacare\u201d without repealing the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n
Yes, no one says this. \u00a0But if you think about the way the words are actually being used, that\u2019s what, in the end, people actually mean.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ADoctor_examines_patient_(1).jpg; By Unknown photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just a small ah-ha moment here during lunch break. How often have you heard the following? People who want to repeal Obamacare don\u2019t realize all the great things it includes: \u00a0the expansion of Medicaid, the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and lifetime maximums, the requirement that adults up to age 25 can remain dependents on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":5217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[133,256],"class_list":["post-6155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-healthcare","tag-obamacare"],"yoast_head":"\n
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