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Overcoming Health Care Polarization with Interaction: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion in Kentucky

Dean, Leah M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554215620088345

Abstract Details

2019, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Political Science.
Polarization on the issue of health care reform has existed since the 1970s, with one of the most debated reform bills being the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act has been a polarizing issue since its passage in 2010. With a general public that is mostly uninformed, most of what an individual comes to understand about a policy comes from political elites who share the same party identification. In the case of the Affordable Care Act, the influence of party identification is so strong that the public is more likely to believe any information so long as it stems from their own party. This has led to widespread misinformation about the health reform law, which in turn erodes support for the law even further. This research seeks to examine whether direct experience with this and other provisions of the law can alter overall preferences of the ACA. This study uses both national level and state level data to analyze the effects of party identification and self-reported experience on reported favorable and unfavorable views of the ACA. In addition, the state level data is used for a survey experiment and is examined as a natural experiment. The results of this study are in line with other literature that has found positive experiences with the ACA lead to more positive views of the law. This research finds that both positive and negative experiences can lead to changes in support for the ACA. When a partisan has a congruent experience they become extremely likely or extremely unlikely to support the ACA, depending on their party identification. Dissonant experiences lead to large percentage point changes in the likelihood of favoring the law, but party identification still moderates the effects of dissonant experiences. The results of this study go against the current understanding how preferences on the Affordable Care Act are formed; experience, in addition to party identification, help the public to form their views on the law. Further study would be necessary to determine the amount of experience necessary to lead to these changes.
Andrew Lewis, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Stephen Mockabee, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Eric Rademacher, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
140 p.
Political Science

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dean, L. M. (2019). Overcoming Health Care Polarization with Interaction: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion in Kentucky [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554215620088345

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dean, Leah. Overcoming Health Care Polarization with Interaction: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion in Kentucky. 2019. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554215620088345.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dean, Leah. "Overcoming Health Care Polarization with Interaction: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion in Kentucky." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554215620088345

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1554215620088345
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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.