Haeder Simon F, Sylvester Steven M, Callaghan Timothy
Texas A&M University.
Utah Valley University.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2023 Oct 1;48(5):713-760. doi: 10.1215/03616878-10637708.
The Medicaid program provides health insurance coverage to a diverse set of demographics. We know little about how the policy community describes these populations (e.g., on Medicaid-related websites or in public opinion polls and policy writings) or whether and how these descriptions may affect perceptions of the program, its beneficiaries, and potential policy changes.
To investigate this issue, we developed and fielded a nationally representative survey of 2,680 Americans that included an experiment for priming respondents by highlighting different combinations of target populations of the Medicaid program as found in the Medicaid policy discourse.
Overall, we find that Americans view Medicaid and its beneficiaries rather favorably. However, there are marked differences based on partisanship and racial animosity. Emphasizing citizenship and residency requirements at times improved these perceptions.
Racial perceptions and partisanship are important correlates in Americans' views about Medicaid and its beneficiaries. However, perceptions are not immutable. In general, the policy community should shift toward using more comprehensive descriptions of the Medicaid population that go beyond the focus on low income and that include citizenship and residency requirements. Future research should expand this work by studying descriptions in the broader public discourse.
医疗补助计划为各种各样的人群提供医疗保险。我们对政策界如何描述这些人群（例如，在与医疗补助相关的网站上，或在民意调查及政策文件中）知之甚少，也不清楚这些描述是否以及如何影响对该计划、其受益者以及潜在政策变化的看法。
为了调查这个问题，我们开展并实施了一项对2680名美国人的具有全国代表性的调查，其中包括一项实验，通过突出医疗补助政策话语中发现的医疗补助计划目标人群的不同组合来引导受访者。
总体而言，我们发现美国人对医疗补助及其受益者的看法颇为正面。然而，基于党派立场和种族敌意存在显著差异。有时强调公民身份和居住要求会改善这些看法。
种族观念和党派立场是美国人对医疗补助及其受益者看法的重要相关因素。然而，看法并非一成不变。总体而言，政策界应转向使用对医疗补助人群更全面的描述，超越对低收入的关注，纳入公民身份和居住要求。未来的研究应通过研究更广泛公共话语中的描述来扩展这项工作。
