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Research Article
Open Access

The Affordable Care Act and the Diffusion of Policy Feedback: The Case of Medicaid Work Requirements

Richard C. Fording, Dana Patton
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences July 2020, 6 (2) 131-153; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2020.6.2.06
Richard C. Fording
aMarilyn Williams Elmore and John Durr Elmore Endowed Professor at the University of Alabama
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Dana Patton
bassociate professor and director of the MPA Program in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama
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Abstract

Over the last five years, many states have sought to limit access to Medicaid by adopting restrictive policies. How can we reconcile this development with studies that imply that Medicaid should be insulated from policy backlash? The answer lies in understanding the policy feedback effects that accompanied Medicaid expansion and how these effects created electoral pressure that led to policy modification. We situate our expectations within a policy diffusion framework that accounts for variation in both the content and timing of policy adoptions across states. We develop and test several hypotheses using survey data and an original dataset on gubernatorial support for Medicaid work requirements. Our hypotheses are generally supported and provide a more nuanced understanding of the policy feedback effects following Medicaid expansion.

  • policy feedback
  • Medicaid
  • health care
  • Obamacare
  • Affordable Care Act
  • policy diffusion
  • © 2020 Russell Sage Foundation. Fording, Richard C., and Dana Patton. 2020. “The Affordable Care Act and the Diffusion of Policy Feedback: The Case of Medicaid Work Requirements.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(2): 131–53. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.2.06. We thank the editors, anonymous reviewers, and conference participants for their helpful comments. Direct correspondence to: Richard C. Fording at rcfording{at}ua.edu, Department of Political Science, University of Alabama, Box 870212, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487; and Dana Patton at dana.patton{at}ua.edu, Department of Political Science, University of Alabama, Box 870212, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 6 (2)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 6, Issue 2
1 Jul 2020
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The Affordable Care Act and the Diffusion of Policy Feedback: The Case of Medicaid Work Requirements
Richard C. Fording, Dana Patton
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Jul 2020, 6 (2) 131-153; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.2.06

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The Affordable Care Act and the Diffusion of Policy Feedback: The Case of Medicaid Work Requirements
Richard C. Fording, Dana Patton
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Jul 2020, 6 (2) 131-153; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.2.06
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Keywords

  • policy feedback
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