WASHINGTON — Most people think of the term “bailout,” as a political pejorative, often involving hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars being funneled to failing companies. It’s now become one of President Trump’s oft-repeated rhetorical cudgels against the Affordable Care Act and federal payments to insurance companies.

In April, the president accused Democrats of wanting to “bail out insurance companies from disastrous #ObamaCare.” In July, he threatened to end “BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies” if Congress did not repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. And in a speech Tuesday night to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Mr. Trump urged Congress to “find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.”

But his use of the word is misleading.

“Bailout” typically refers to financial assistance offered to prevent the bankruptcy of a company or industry. The 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (which Mr. Trump largely supported) was a bailout because it provided $700 billion for the Treasury Department to buy troubled securities from banks that were at risk of collapse.