I hate to say this, but the Affordable Care Act is unpopular. Here's a few thoughts on how we can fix this.
Putting aside the terrible real world implications of overturning the Affordable Care Act, one thing that strikes me as important is how little the political dynamics have changed since 2010. Back then, the law had just passed and no benefits had kicked in. Tea Partiers swarmed congressional town hall meetings, and opposition to the bill hovered around 54%.
Interestingly, this level of opposition has remained largely unchanged in the two years since, even though key parts of the law, such as the provision affording individuals under 26 years of age to remain on their parents' health insurance plans, have been implemented.
Why is this so? There are a number of reasons people still oppose the health care law, but I think a lot of it has to do with the ineffectiveness of the Democratic messaging on the issue. From President Obama on down, Democrats have not put forward the strongest case for why people should support health care reform, which as it is currently designed should appeal to moderates and independents.
Just consider the word "mandate." For most people, the salient feature of "Obamacare" is the fact that the government is going to start forcing people to buy private health insurance. This is true, of course, but Democratic leaders, and progressives as a whole, have done strikingly little to explain what this means. In reality, the mandate is a policy that is meant to prevent people from "free riding" off the system. Since everyone is going to get some form of medical care, we need to make sure that everyone pays at least something.
This is a conservative position that got its start in the Heritage Foundation and has been most famously implemented in Mitt Romney's very own Massachusetts - with very positive results! Indeed, Romney himself has done a better job explaining how the system works than most Democrats.
So how can Democrats better market health care reform, and the mandate in particular? Well, I'd suggest taking a page out of the conservative playbook and arguing that the mandate is needed to make sure everyone contributes their fair share. No free riders. Repeat. No free riders. Individual responsibility, everyone pays, nobody is allowed to cheat. Repeat. You get the point.
As a Californian, I can assure you that this stuff gets traction. I can't tell you how many of my moderate friends make the argument that the California budget is broken because illegal immigrants game the system and receive benefits without paying their fair share. That this argument is incorrect is beside the point. It is a political winner, and hopefully progressives will use the uncertainty over the Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling to rethink how they market health care reform to the public.
What do y'all think about how we should frame the health care reform debate over the coming months?
- Cross posted from the Cognitive Politics blog: Bringing psychology, linguistics, and marketing to progressive politics.