ABSTRACT
In describing the mandate component of health-care reform to the American public, President Barack Obama and his supporters predominantly used penalty/fine to describe the mechanism to enforce compliance. Broadly speaking, the ruling was perceived as a victory for the Obama Administration, largely upholding its signature legislative achievement, and may have produced a small positive effect on public support for health-care reform immediately thereafter. This chapter focuses on the high-stakes communications contests of how the president and his opponents compete to frame the actual nuts and bolts provisions of policy reforms. Compliance with the stipulations of a law like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), particularly a provision like the individual mandate, rests in part on whether citizens are aware of the policy and view it as legitimate. Variations in the selected news outlets help illuminate how framing contests on policy substance might play out in hard news vs. soft news, liberal- vs. conservative-leaning organizations, and "new" vs. "old" media.
