The Medicaid Expansion and Attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act: Testing for a Policy Feedback on Mass Opinion

18 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2017 Last revised: 26 Jan 2018

See all articles by Daniel J. Hopkins

Daniel J. Hopkins

University of Pennsylvania

Kalind Parish

University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Political Science, Students

Date Written: January 26, 2018

Abstract

Enacted in 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has reshaped U.S. health policy. Yet overall opinions on the law remained relatively stable during the few years before and after enactment. In a polarized era, can the implementation of a complex program such as the ACA influence public opinion through a policy feedback? Research on policy feedbacks and self-interest provide competing expectations. To address that question, we consider the impact of the Medicaid expansion which took place in select states. Using differences-in-differences estimation and 2010-2017 surveys of more than 51,000 non-elderly American adults, we show that the Medicaid expansion made low-income Americans on average 4.4 percentage points more favorable toward the ACA (SD=1.7) relative to those in non-expansion states. Given that we find no such effect for high-income respondents, these results are consistent with an impact via self-interest and with a policy feedback on public opinion.

Keywords: Public Opinion, Policy Feedbacks, Health Policy, Affordable Care Act

JEL Classification: H51, I13, H00

Suggested Citation

Hopkins, Daniel J. and Parish, Kalind, The Medicaid Expansion and Attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act: Testing for a Policy Feedback on Mass Opinion (January 26, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2990576 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2990576

Daniel J. Hopkins (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania ( email )

Stiteler Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.danhopkins.org

Kalind Parish

University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Political Science, Students ( email )

Stiteler Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
383
Abstract Views
4,201
Rank
120,967
PlumX Metrics