“I Am Obamacare”: A Meme is Born?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


This seems strikingly meme-worthy: 

"I Am Obamacare": Miss M. Turner“I Am Obamacare”: Miss M. TurnerThe photo was taken by “Miss M. Turner,” a “34 year old Pagan female who lives in Florida,” who posted it to her blog and on Facebook. She writes that she was inspired by last fall’s “We Are the 99 Percent” meme to “do my spin on it because this is what is going on in MY life.” What’s going on, she explains, is that she was diagnosed with several large uterine tumors and didn’t have health insurance. Private insurers turned her away for having an expensive pre-exisiting condition, but she was able to buy into a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan. This high-risk insurance pool was one of the first elements of health-care reform to take effect after it was signed into law in March 2010. Miss M.’s surgery still wasn’t cheap, but she writes, “it was this or cash. And this is a HELL of a lot better.”

The image has been out there since October, but was recently reposted on Facebook, where it’s been shared more than 19,000 times. If it inspires copycats, there’s already an I Am Obamacare Tumblr, just waiting for submissions. Considering how little the White House has done to promote its health care policies, you’d think the Obama campaign would be quick to share, encourage, or outright co-opt this nascent meme. Of course, it first would have to embrace the tag “Obamacare.”

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate