How Framing Shapes Abortion, COVID-19, and Medicaid Politics

Session Submission Type: In-Person Created Panel

Session Description

This panel presents research on the ways that framing shapes health politics and policy.

Steven Sylvester, Simon Haeder, and Timothy Callaghan use a survey experiment to analyze how eight different descriptions of Medicaid recipients, such as those commonly used by survey organizations and state Medicaid websites, impact mass perceptions of the program overall and its beneficiaries. They find that descriptions that highlight groups traditionally seen as deserving raise support for the program and raise self-reported enrollment interest, while descriptions that emphasize the intergovernmental structure of Medicaid and that emphasize lower income recipients lower support for the program.

Matthew Motta examines how the framing of accomplishments related to COVID-19 vaccination impact vaccine intentions among Democrats and Republicans. Using a survey experiment, Motta finds that frames that emphasize the Trump administration’s vaccine accomplishments increase Republicans’ intentions to take the vaccine, while frames that emphasize the work of the Biden administration in vaccination raise Democrats’ intentions to take the vaccine.

Rebecca Kreitzer, Kellen Kane, and John Cluverius study how interest groups gain influence in the policymaking process when their intended audience is the mass public versus when their intended audience is lawmakers, using abortion as a policy example. Using an original dataset and structural topic models, they present evidence that interest groups shift their communication strategies across these audiences.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• More Than Words: How Framing Affects Perceptions of the Medicaid Program - Steven M. Sylvester, Utah Valley University; Simon F. Haeder, The Pennsylvania State University; Timothy Herbert Callaghan, Texas A&M University

• Neutralizing COVID-19 Vaccine Politicization via Strategic Health Communication - Matthew P. Motta, Oklahoma State University

• Pro-Life Policymaking: Contingent Framing of Interest Group Lobbying on Abortion - Rebecca J. Kreitzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Kellen A. Kane, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; John Cluverius, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Chair

• Colleen M. Grogan University of Chicago

Discussants

• Philip B. Rocco Marquette University

• Ashley Kirzinger Kaiser Family Foundation