When Citizens Opt In, Attitudes Can Change
When Citizens Opt In, Attitudes Can Change
This chapter shows that positive personal experiences with public health insurance can quickly and substantially improve people’s attitudes toward major public health programs like Medicare and the ACA. Importantly, these effects are actually strongest among Republicans and are not confined only to those with low or moderate levels of political information. Instead, results are strongest among those for whom health benefits are most salient (i.e., those in ill health) and among those whose insurance provides sufficient access to care (i.e., those who report that they have not put off care due to cost). These results suggest that individual attitudes toward the role of government can be changed, even among those who might be resistant to explicitly political messaging from elites. Specifically, when individuals personally receive what they consider to be valuable and well-administered public benefits, their attitudes toward public programs improve. If instead individuals choose to opt out of public programs and benefits, this precludes the possibility that people directly experience, and thereby learn from, effective government programs.
Keywords: Affordable Care Act, Medicare, policy feedback, public opinion, political information
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