There\u2019s been a major development in health-care politics over the last few months. The Obama administration and the Republicans came to an agreement on health reform. Not the law itself \u2014 they\u2019re still at each other\u2019s throats over that. But they finally agree on how to refer to it. Nowadays, both sides are calling it Obamacare. And during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, the Democrats talked about Obamacare. A lot.<\/p>\n
That was, in itself, a surprise. Obamacare \u2014 or, as it\u2019s officially called, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act \u2014 doesn\u2019t poll particularly well, and it\u2019s believed to have been a key contributor to the Republican victory in 2010. But Democrats appear to think that the politics have changed. Indeed,\u00a0if the first night of the Democratic Convention is to be remembered for anything aside from Michelle Obama\u2019s speech, it will probably be remembered as the night that Democrats stood up and began fighting for their health-care law.<\/p>\n
Michelle Obama and the Democrats doubled down on \u201cObamacare.\u201d (Jae C. Hong\/AP)<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernor Romney says people like me were the most excited about President Obama the day we voted for him,\u201d said Stacey Lihn, whose daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. \u201cBut that\u2019s not true. Not even close. For me, there was the day the Affordable Care Act passed and I no longer had to worry about Zoe getting the care she needed. There was the day the letter arrived from the insurance company, saying that our daughter\u2019s lifetime cap had been lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lihn wasn\u2019t shy about the stakes for her family. \u201cGovernor Romney repealing health care reform is something we worry about literally every day,\u201d she said. \u201cZoe\u2019s third open-heart surgery will happen either next year or the year after. If Mitt Romney becomes president and Obamacare is repealed, there\u2019s a good chance she\u2019ll hit her lifetime cap.\u201d<\/p>\n