Now the Republicans are stuck with the name "Obamacare"

A few years ago, shortly before the last presidential election, I used the word "Obamacare" in a headline. The big boss editor changed it and chastised me because he thought it carried a negative connotation.

I disagreed because the way I had seen it being used at the time it appeared to be turning around to a positive. I supposed I wanted that to continue and in the back of my mind I thought the more it was used, the more it would grow in acceptance. There wasn't much sense in arguing the point: I wasn't going to win it.

Some time later as the program itself was going through its birthing pains and its advantages becoming exposed, I wrote on here how I thought Republicans had made a big mistake calling it Obamacare because as it became more and more accepted, they would have to live with it as a constant reminder how the president they hated so much would come to mind anytime anyone mentioned the Affordable Care Act, sort of a living, enduring memorial.

Today the term showed up in headlines a couple of times and I got a good laugh thinking how every time some Repug sees it the politician must cringe. My expectation had come true.

The congressional GOP used the word like a profanity and wasted millions of dollars trying to vote it out more than 50 times. But the hatred continues and some folks will cut off their own tails rather than admit it's a success. Take Aetna Insurance for instance. Aetna benefited tremendously from Obamacare bringing in something like $7 billion overall since the program began. Still the company plans to pull out of it blaming the president for not knuckling under to their demands to change.

That's a simplification of a complex financial accounting. healthinsurance,org has a complete explanation here.

The bottom line is the health insurance industry cares more about the bottom line than it does about actually serving people and if they can blame a hated president for their problems, more the better. Single-payer health insurance isn't too far down the road.

Meanwhile every time the name Obamacare pops up they have to cringe at the living memorial to something and someone they say they hate so much. But they still aren't letting go.

The other day a campaign flyer came from our US senator who's running for re-election. Lisa Murkowski is generally considered one of the more moderate Republicans, but to my mind she is just quieter about the more outrageous things she supports in the Senate. The flyer listed bullet points of what she thought were her positive accomplishments in office. Right there in big type she is pointing out how she is proud of voting against Obamacare. Some accomplishment, 50 votes and millions wasted but what's the end result?

The very name she and her fellow obstructionsts hate shows up on her own campaign literature, a blazing memorial to a progressive step in America from a well-liked president and nothing she can do about it. You go, Lisa. Far away, please. And the rest of us will suffer through better health care with a name that turned from a negative to a positive. It's always pleasant to be right once in a while.

Affordable health care by any other name is still Obamacare