Who took your Medicaid away?

In the long, long runup to full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Jonathan Bernstein was fond of predicting that many people who gained coverage through the new law would not be aware that the ACA -- or "Obamacare" -- was responsible. Over time, the ACA would "disappear." The state exchanges make no reference to the Affordable Care Act -- and neither, for that matter, does Healthcare.gov. As for the Medicaid expansion, Medicaid is Medicaid.

That forecast will probably come true over time -- though perversely, the exchanges' malfunctioning in the early months probably made more people aware of them in the first signup season.  Meanwhile, the political insight underlying the forecast -- that most people pay very little attention to government initiatives and political battles -- makes me wonder about a shorter-term political question.