Health Care and the 2020 Election: Policy and Politics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Health care policy has always been an important issue for voters in Presidential elections, but 2020 looks to be an election increasingly defined by health care policy platforms—and not just for Democratic voters. One sign of this is extensive political advertising referencing health care, and election year polling demonstrating that health care is a major issue for voters. President Trump’s February State of the Union address included 15 minutes of discussion of health care, demonstrating that he believes the Republican party can appeal to Republicans and win back the issue owned by Democrats. In the Democratic primary, the content of health policy proposals, especially candidates’ commitment to Medicare for All versus more incremental reform strategies, loom large in public assessments of different candidates. Polling continually shows that despite attention to Medicare for All on the debate stage, the dominant issue voters care about approaching the 2020 election is skyrocketing health care costs.

Political scientists will benefit from a nuanced understanding of the content of the policies proposed, the legacy of the Affordable Care Act (and earlier reform attempts) on voters’ opinions, and the impact of policy strategies for promoting health equity in an increasingly divided populace. The proposed panel will provide an overview of the policy and the politics of health care issues in 2020. It features experts presenting data from national polling organizations (Adrianna McIntyre representing Harvard/Commonwealth and Ashley Kirzinger, representing Kaiser Family Foundation), an expert on political advertising (Erika Franklin Fowler from the Wesleyan Media Project), and a set of scholars who will respond and reflect on the historical origin and evolution of reforms to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (Colleen Grogan, Jonathan Oberlander, Jim Morone, Elizabeth Rigby).

The panel will feature brief presentations on public opinion and political advertising data, followed by reactions and responses from political scientists with historical, institutional and comparative perspectives. Nationally-recognized political journalist Jonathan Cohn (Huffington Post) will set up the panel and moderate the interactive discussion.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Cosponsor

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Chair

• Jonathan Cohn HuffPost

Presenters

• Colleen M. Grogan University of Chicago

• James A. Morone Brown University

• Jonathan Oberlander University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Ashley Kirzinger Kaiser Family Foundation

• Adrianna McIntyre Harvard

• Erika Franklin Fowler Wesleyan University