In the past week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has begun referring to the health insurance exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as "marketplaces."
Fans of PPACA say the renaming was done to ease the public's understanding of what the exchanges are for (to buy health insurance), while foes, including many Republican governors who have refused to implement the exchanges, refer to the new name as a subterfuge.
“I think the patient-centered care movement can chalk up a minor victory here,” Dean Clancy of FreedomWorks, an opposition group, said. “If they’re trying to relabel, it means they’re flailing.”
“It’s not that exchanges are unpopular, but there also isn’t broad awareness about what they are and what they will do for the people who will benefit from them across the country, so it makes sense to use a more descriptive name,” a Democratic source countered.