Who Uses Public Health Resources and Who is Seen as Deserving of Doing So

Session Submission Type: Virtual Created Panel

Session Description

The papers on this panel present new evidence about who uses publicly funded health services and who is seen as deserving of such health care.

Cesar Daniel Vargas Nunez examines how COVID-19 has impacted undocumented immigrants. This research uncovers evidence that undocumented immigrants are hesitant to seek medical care and to get vaccinated, especially in Republican states.

Tracee Morgan Saunders studies how Medicaid resources are distributed across counties and finds that Medicaid enrollment is lower relative to need in counties that are more racially heterogeneous. Further, she finds that states with more restrictive Medicaid policies and states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act also see lower Medicaid enrollment rates relative to need.

Patricia Strach, Elizabeth Perez Chiques, and Katie Zuber present findings from 175 interviews and nine focus groups on the lessons that drug policy teaches--not just to people with substance use disorders, but also to government workers and to private and non-profit professionals--about how government works, about the nature of substance use disorder, and about people who use drugs.

Abigail Fisher Williamson, Kristin Kay Lunz Trujillo, Sarah Willen, and Colleen Walsh use a conjoint experiment to study the criteria that shape the mass public’s assessments of whose health deserves public investment.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Undocumented Immigrants - Cesar Daniel Vargas Nunez, Stanford University

• Medicaid, Race, and Local Discretion: How Segregation Affects Benefit Allocation - Tracee Morgan Saunders, University of Iowa

• What Government Teaches: Lessons from Drug Policy - Patricia Strach, University at Albany, SUNY; Elizabeth Perez Chiques, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas; Katie Zuber, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York

• Whose Health Deserves Investment? A Crowdfunding Conjoint Experiment - Abigail Fisher Williamson, Trinity College; Kristin Kay Lunz Trujillo, Harvard University; Sarah S. Willen, University of Connecticut; Colleen C. Walsh, Cleveland State University

Chair

• Frank J. Thompson Rutgers University

Discussants

• Taleed El-Sabawi florida international university

• Andrew S. Kelly California State University, East Bay