Adoption versus Replacement: “Obamacare” at Crossroads

Abstract

Conservatives tend to oppose any attempt at reforming the American healthcare system. This ideologically based objection witnessed a remarkable increase after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nicknamed "Obamacare." The present paper will mainly discuss and analyze both the genesis of the political polarization over the ACA and its potential destiny. In tackling the issue of polarization over Obamacare as a case study, this article will employ the Lakoffian Metaphor Theory. This latter differentiates between the conservative and liberal moral worldviews by a metaphor of "nation as family" where the strict father stands for the conservative mind and the nurturant parent represents the liberal thought. Hence, this paper seeks to explore the reasons that lie behind the liberals' tolerance and conservatives' antipathy towards Obamacare. It draws the conclusion that the conservatives' strenuous efforts to reform some provisions of the ACA were achievable, yet the pursuit of repealing the whole law was not an overnight issue.