Sen. Mark Pryor and candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes have
started talking about Obamacare, and not just talking about it but campaigning on it and what it would mean for millions of people if their Republican opponents have their way and repeal it. Making Republicans like Tom Cotton and Sen. Mitch McConnell own repeal is a smart move, E.J. Dionne
writes.
As one Democratic pollster told me, his focus groups showed that when voters outside the Republican base are given details about what the law does and how it works, “people come around and say, ‘That’s not so bad, what’s everybody excited about?’ ”
This consultant says of Democrats who voted for the law: “You’re going to be stuck with all the bad about this but not benefit from any of the good unless you advertise” what the Affordable Care Act does. This is what Pryor has decided to do. […]
The Bluegrass State is particularly instructive on the importance of labeling and branding. A Public Policy Polling survey this month found that the Affordable Care Act had a net negative approval rating, 34 percent to 51 percent. But Kynect was rated positively, 34 percent to 27 percent. Grimes and the Democrats need to confront McConnell forcefully on the issue he has tried to fudge: A flat repeal of Obamacare would mean taking insurance away from the more than 521,000 Kentuckians who, as of last Friday, had secured coverage through Kynect. How would that sit with the state’s voters?
Losing health coverage simply because of politics shouldn't sit well with any state's voters. It really is that simple for Democrats, whether they call it Obamacare or Kynect or something else. That should extend to Medicaid expansion, and the fact that pure politics is keeping millions of people from getting coverage. That's not a hard thing for voters to understand, and it is something that could really motivate the base.