While Obamacare was made law with the somewhat politicized name of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a U.S. Republican has upped the ante with the name for his proposed replacement: The World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan.
“This Act may be cited as the ‘World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017,’” reads the preamble to the 20,000 word bill, introduced earlier this month.
Although the title would seem to reek of Trumpian hyperbole, it actually has nothing to do with U.S. President Donald Trump. His proposed Obamacare replacement is the staidly-named American Health Care Act. (However, Trump still maintains he has the “world’s greatest” memory).
Rather, the World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan is part of a slew of Obamacare alternatives that have been tabled in Washington.
Proposed by Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, this is actually the second iteration of the World’s Greatest Health Plan.
Both bills, which are presumably equally great, simply propose to keep Obamacare, but to make the program optional.
The vast majority of U.S. federal legislation carries boring, technical names, such as the Arbuckle Project Maintenance Complex and District Office Conveyance Act of 2017.
But every once in a while, a hot button bill is sold with a slightly sexier name, such as the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act or its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Canada, meanwhile, remains much more uptight with naming its federal legislation. For instance, the 2014 budget bill, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures.
Or this gem that passed in December, An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017.
However, even we Canadians can’t resist the occasional headline-worthy bill name, particularly when children are involved.
In Alberta, a 2014 Progressive Conservative bill regarding gay-straight alliances in schools was given the title An Act to Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to Protect Our Children.
• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopper
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