The Obama administration is re-branding the central component of its signature healthcare law.
The Health and Human Services Department suddenly stopped referring to insurance “exchanges” this week, even as it heralded ongoing efforts to prod states into setting up their own. Instead, press materials and a website for the public referred to insurance “marketplaces” in each state.
The change comes amid a determined push by conservative activists to block state-based exchanges in hopes 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.
“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’s trying 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 off any chance of repealing “ObamaCare” in Congress.
Read more.