Political Debate Over the Reform of the American Health Care System: The Case of “Obamacare”

Abstract

The reform of the American health care system and its magnitude has always been a contested issue between the Democrats and Republicans. In this respect, the political struggle over health care repair has intensified during the enactment and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) adopted by President Barack Obama. In an attempt to analyze the polarization concerned with this system’s reform, particularly the ACA as a case study, this paper employs the metaphor theory introduced by the American cognitive linguist George Lakoff. This theory utilizes the metaphor of “nation as family” to refer to the two major ideologies composing the American political spectrum, namely liberalism and conservatism. Through employing a Lakoffian model of family-based morality, this paper seeks to provide a careful examination of the liberals’ tolerant and empathetic standpoint towards public health care expansion on the one hand, and the conservatives’ commitment to anti-ACA welfare provisions on the other hand. Accordingly, it attempts to explore areas of debate including universalizability of health care access, the interference with the market, and the issue of abortion and contraception. My paper draws the conclusion that the Democrats’ unlimited approval of the ACA and Republicans’ vehement resistance to it stem from principled moral choice rather than mere partisanship.