by Patrick Appel
Jason Cherkis reports on an amusing exchange:
A middle-aged man in a red golf shirt shuffles up to a small folding table with gold trim, in a booth adorned with a flotilla of helium balloons, where government workers at the Kentucky State Fair are hawking the virtues of Kynect, the state’s health benefit exchange established by Obamacare.
The man is impressed. “This beats Obamacare I hope,” he mutters to one of the workers.
“Do I burst his bubble?” wonders Reina Diaz-Dempsey, overseeing the operation. She doesn’t. If he signs up, it’s a win-win, whether he knows he’s been ensnared by Obamacare or not.
Drum discovers that, on “the Kynect website, you can look far and wide and never get a clue that it has anything at all to do with Obamacare or ACA or even the federal government.” Sarah Kliff thinks this story speaks volumes:
When Americans actually interact with Obamacare, it won’t be called Obamacare at all.
In Kentucky, for example, it will be Kynect, the state health marketplace. In Idaho, local residents will purchase coverage from Your Health Idaho. Covered Oregon will serve (surprise!) Oregonians, while neighboring Washingtonians will purchase coverage from WAHealthPlanFinder. If you watch the ads that states have produced to support their marketplaces, they rarely mention the federal law that has set these changes in action.
Jonathan Bernstein adds:
[I]t’s still very likely that “Obamacare” will stay just as unpopular as ever, especially among Republicans, even as it becomes political suicide to take away Affordable Care Act benefits.
The Dish 