Obama admin rebrands signature healthcare law

Obama administration is re-branding the central component of its signature healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department stopped referring to insurance exchanges this week, even as it heralded the ongoing efforts to prod states into setting up their own.

The change comes despite a determined push by conservative activists to block state-based exchanges in the hope of crippling the federal implementation effort.

Dean Clancy, the Director of healthcare policy at FreedomWorks said, “HHS’s decision to ditch the exchanges label shows that opponents of the healthcare law are succeeding. “ Dean also said, ““I think the patient-centered care movement can chalk up a minor victory here,” he said. “If they’re trying to re-label, it means they’re flailing.” 

FreedomWorks runs a website, blockexchanges.com that aims to build grassroots opposition to the insurance markets. The effort has taken on heightened importance in the wake of President Obama’s reelection, which killed of any chance of repeating ObamaCare in Congress.

The democrats and supporters of the healthcare law say that the name change was not meant to assuage political opposition to the healthcare law.

The supporters of the healthcare law noted that states have come up with their own names for their exchanges. Massachusetts’, which predates the federal healthcare law, is called the “Connector” California considered an array of options, including “Avocado” and “Condor” before settling on “Cover California.”