Health, Health Policy Design, and the Effects on Political Attitudes & Behavior

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

How does health, health care access, and health policy design affect political attitudes, political preferences, and political behavior? Spanning the US, Europe, and Central American, the papers on this panel provide new theoretical and methodological insights into how health and health policies influence political attitudes and behaviors. In the papers offered by Livaudais and Zarychta, the authors explore how policy reforms and policy design may impact political attitudes and behavior. Livaudais examines changes in Medicaid postpartum eligibility on the political attitudes of Latinx and Asian mothers and birthing persons. Using a reproductive justice framework, Livaudais examines the unique barriers to care that some individuals experience in the postpartum period, and how this may influence attitudes towards Medicaid. Zarychta’s study of decentralized social services in Honduras, relies on a survey experiment to understand how polycentric governance may affect political behavior. Preliminary findings suggest that there is greater approval for more polycentric governing arrangements over less polycentric and for decentralized social service delivery by NGOs than by centralized governance. The findings, Zarychta suggests, mean that crowding-out motivation or muddled accountability are not necessarily the inevitable result of such hybrid policy designs. In Kavanaugh and Neeman’s paper, the focus shifts to Europe and to health as an independent variable. As nations confront the continuing toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, disability and illness, as Kavanaugh and Neeman suggest, may become increasingly important in understanding electoral politics. While disability and illness have been shown to suppress political participation, Kavanaugh and Neeman explore the relatively understudied question of how disability and illness affect political attitudes. Kavanaugh and Neeman find that Europeans with worse health and disabilities are more economically progressive, yet social conservative—showing more support for redistributive policies, but are considerably more opposed to immigrant and gender minority rights. Su examines the electoral impact of Medicaid expansion at the state level. Finding that Democrats were punished in states that expanded Medicaid, including in both legislative and gubernatorial elections.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Cosponsor

• Division 37: Public Opinion

Individual Presentations

• Latinx & Asian Mothers & Birthing Persons Views on Medicaid Postpartum Coverage - Maria Livaudais, California State University East Bay

• Decentralized Service Delivery and Individuals' Political Behavior - Alan Zarychta, University of Chicago

• Health, Disability and Political Attitudes: Advancing Theory and Methodology - Nolan M Kavanagh, Harvard University; Ari Neeman, Harvard University

• The Thermostatic Impact of Medicaid Expansion on United States Elections - Dickson Su, Public Agenda

Chair

• Miranda Elyse Yaver University of Pittsburgh

Discussants

• Matt Motta Boston University School of Public Health

• Kristin Kay Lunz Trujillo Boston College