Public Meets Health Policy: How Public Influences Up, How Policy Influences Down

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Papers in this panel explore the nexus between health policy and practice, and society. Together, these papers explore how society influences policy when groups push different policy preferences, and how policy influences society when government decisions shape individual and group preferences. By investigating these dynamics in different policy settings, including amidst elections and during health emergencies, these papers collectively reflect on prominent patterns in this policy-society nexus, and look towards political futures that will be forced to grapple with aging populations and rising health care costs, increasing mis- and dis-information, and fluctuating trust in government. In the first paper on the panel, Olivier Jacques and his co-authors use an original survey experiment in four countries to explore trade-off preferences between health care and other policies. They find that older respondents were more likely to accept that health care budgets crowd out other social policies, and also that older respondents were more likely to reward or punish incumbent governments based on their health policy decisions. Also considering themes of policy preference, Gaby Aboulfia’s contribution considers the relationship between health status and attitudes towards government. Using data from the American National Elections Studies (ANES) Times Series study, Aboulfia finds that worse health status and anxiety is associated with lower trust in government, and a decreased likelihood that Americans feel that governments respond to their needs. Tiago Tasca also takes up themes of trust in his paper on vaccine hesitancy and institutional trust in Brazilian municipalities. Drawing on original survey work, Tasca finds that rather than mis- or dis-information, institutional trust is in fact a greater driver of vaccine hesitancy. Also engaging with themes of vaccine hesitancy, Robert Brehm looks at political elites and their support for anti-vaccine symbols. Drawing on a survey experiment, Brehm finds that political elites leverage political capital associated with anti-vaccine views despite risks to the public.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• Ageing and Growing Health Care Costs: The Political Pathway - Olivier Jacques, University of Montreal, School of Public Health; Sharon Baute, University of Konstanz; Marius Busemeyer, University of Konstanz; David Weisstanner, University of Aarhus

• Health, Health Care Costs, and Attitudes towards Government - Gabriella Aboulafia, Harvard University

• Symbolic Representation and Political Identity among Anti-vaccine Communities - Robert Brehm, University of Virginia

Chair

• Miriam J. Laugesen Columbia University

Discussant

• Sarah E. Gollust University of Minnesota