Self-Rated Health and Attitudes About U.S. Health Care Policy

ABSTRACT

How does one’s own health influence attitudes about national health care policy? Previous research has documented a reliable (though bounded) role of personal interest in shaping policy preferences, but little is known about the role that personal health plays in shaping these attitudes. Using recent General Social Survey data, we find that those with poorer self-rated health were more likely to endorse a strong role for government in providing health care, and more likely to endorse increased spending on health care. Further analysis suggested that this relationship was moderated by political ideology. Implications for better understanding the source of health policy support are discussed.

Notes

¹Missingness of this kind is considered missing completely at random and can therefore be subject to listwise deletion without biasing standard errors or parameter estimates (Allison 2002; Soley-Bori 2013).

²The ballot structure of the GSS was such that almost no respondents were asked the relevant racial questions and the questions about support for health care spending, thereby making such an analysis impossible with these data.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan Jerome LeCount

Ryan Jerome LeCount is an assistant professor of sociology at Hamline University. His research and teaching interests rest at the intersection of race and politics, specifically with respect to the ways that one’s racial attitudes shape her/his political values.

Kathleen Abrahamson

Kathleen Abrahamson is an associate professor of nursing at Purdue University. Her research and teaching focus on organizational dynamics within nursing homes in general and the identity dynamics of nurses in these settings in particular.