Obamacare

Obamacare is an broad term for the health care policies and practices of the Obama Administration, based on the Affordable Health Care for America Act but including Presidential actions. Passage of the enabling legislation in the House and Senate was the prime legislative goal of the Administration. Besides legislation, Executive Orders and other policies will affect its implentation. While it was originated as a deprecatory term by Republicans, it is a common American journalistic shorthand for the Administration's initiative, simply because there is no short term that describes the multitude of legislative and executive initiatives under the program.

For example, the House bill included support for abortion, but to get it through Congress, the President issued an Executive Order committing not to allocate Federal funds for abortion.

It is likely that aspects will need interpretation by the Supreme Court. The legislation requires Americans either to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Opponents claim this is a tax, and, for various reasons, is unconstitutional.

Politics

Republicans, after the 2010 election, led by John Boehner, strongly urge its appeal, but it is unlikely they have the votes for an outright reversal. They claim that a message from the 2010 election was that the American people do not want it, but polls reported by the New York Times say "only 18 percent said health care was the nation’s top issue. While 48 percent of voters said they wanted to repeal the health care law, 47 percent said they wanted to keep it the way it is or expand it." A lesson to be learned by Democrats is that the American people are most concerned with jobs and the economy.