Even Democrats Who Support Obamacare Won’t Name It

Obamacare supporters became very excited this
week following the release of a new ad from Sen. Mark Pryor, an
Arkansas Democrat facing a difficult reelection bid this November.
The spot touted his support for, as he says in the ad,
“a law that helps prevent insurance policies from canceling your
policy when you get sick, or deny coverage for preexisting
conditions.”

That law, of course, is the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, though Pryor doesn’t refer
to it by either name in the ad.

Liberal pundits have dismissed the omission as trivial—after
all, this is a Democrat in a tight race and a conservative state
touting his vote for the president’s health law. Given
how timid Democrats have been about expressing support for
Obamacare, that’s a pretty big deal, right? Perhaps Democratic
politicians are finally coming around to more open and aggressive
support for the law, just as liberal commentators have been urging
for months.

I doubt it. Given the history of failed Obamacare messaging
efforts, this doesn’t seem like that big a deal, and I think the
omission of any name for the law is actually quite telling.

Pryor’s ad, and the buzz around it, are basically just extension
of the argument that health law supporters have made for years:
Sure, the law is unpopular, but many of the specific
provisions—especially provisions requiring insurers to cover
individuals with preexisting conditions—poll quite well.

It’s true that those specific provisions poll well. It’s been
true for years. But the administration and its allies have
attempted to capitalize on this since before the law even passed,
and it’s never translated into popular support. Yes, there are a
number of provisions in the law that are and have long been
popular. But the public doesn’t like the law as a whole, and it’s
been quite clear and consistent on this matter, despite efforts to
build support by pointing to the provisions that more people
like. 

Pryor’s ad is just an updated version of this familiar
approach to Obamacare messaging. It names some popular provisions,
but not the law as a whole.

So this isn’t some big shift. It’s the same old strategy
of playing up the popular provisions while playing down or ignoring
the law, and its impact, in its entirety.

If anything, Democrats in close races are still generally trying
to avoid talking about the law. And when they do talk about it,
they often make sure to voice support for fixing it. A
few states away from Arkansas, in the conservative panhandle of
Florida, for example, Democrat Gwen Graham is challenging
conservative incumbent Republican Steven Southerland for his House
seat. Thanks to name recognition (her father was governor of
Florida), Graham is one of the few Democrats
making headway against a conservative opponent in what
increasingly looks like a very strong year for Republicans. She’s
not exactly running hard on the health law. This week, she launched
an ad this week declaring that “Obamacare has got to be changed
so it works for North Florida.”

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a similar dynamic in a
number of close races. In North Carolina, Democratic Sen. Kay
Hagan, who has voiced support for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion,
actually
ran an anti-Obamacare ad against her GOP challenger last May.
Her support for Obamacare
continues to be an issue in the race. Democrat Alison Grimes,
who is challenging Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, has treaded lightly in her support for the health law,
talking about its effects in Kentucky
without actually naming it.

Part of the story is the declining salience of Obamacare as a
campaign issue. As The New York Times
reported this week, there were 530 news releases from
legislators mentioning Obamacare last summer. Over the last three
months of this year, however, there were just 138. That’s to be
expected, given its prominence in the news last year. Now that the
initial furor has died down, legislators on both sides of the aisle
are talking about it less. But that’s not a great sign for the law.
It just shows that the fight over the issue has ebbed, and opinions
about Obamacare are basically settled. Which is why even Democrats
who support it won’t name it.