We are curious not only in descriptively exploring the county correlates off ACA partisan polarization, but also in how county coverage choices influence public-opinion. Recall that we expect brand new gap between partisans’ critiques of your own ACA as huge into the aligned partisan environments (says in which Democrats enjoys forced for execution and Republicans features compared it) and you may less during the misaligned partisan environments (states where Republicans possess backed execution).
Contained in this study, i work on governors. As the most visible county social officials in addition to most significant so you’re able to utilization of both transfers and Medicaid expansion, governors feel the greatest potential to move public opinion through its stated ranks. Starting with the policy briefs provided with brand new Kaiser Members of the family Basis, i assigned taught browse personnel having confirming (courtesy news accounts) whenever governors in for each state clarified public announcements of its prominent policy for the transfers and you may Medicaid extension. Into the transfers, we authored dichotomous details getting gubernatorial announcements in favor of county-work with transfers (more “pro-ACA” execution solution, implemented in the 11 states together with District of Columbia), federally run exchanges (which amount to a refusal so you’re able to to go state tips in order to execution, then followed from inside the twenty-7 states), and you can state-federal “partnership” transfers (a crossbreed design between the two, used on the remaining 11 states). Getting Medicaid expansion, i written one varying capturing whether or not the governor revealed help your variant out of Medicaid extension, whether the full expansion anticipated beneath the new legislation, or perhaps the affected Part 1115 waiver designs negotiated because of the most Republican-regulated states you to definitely went forward which have extension. 6
The theoretical construction takes on you to a leading-profile statement from the a key partisan profile like a governor produces a lasting improvement wat is equestriansingles in the brand new governmental ecosystem in a condition. Ergo, in states where in fact the governor indicated service to own a certain policy option, the relevant varying was coded 0 for all quarters before announcement and you can 1 towards quarter where in fact the announcement are made plus in all of the household afterwards. Per ones parameters, brand new baseline is actually a decreased-pointers ecosystem where the governor hasn’t taken a updates into the implementation.
New interaction regards to all of those variables towards the Republican governor varying makes reference to the essential difference between that scenario plus one when you look at the and this a Republican governor generated the same statement (misaligned partisan plan ecosystem)
As we predict the end result of signs so you can differ based on this new partisanship of your governor, we likewise incorporate a great dichotomous changeable indicating if the governor during the each condition try a good Republican during the for every quarter. By the communicating so it varying into the statement variables, we could differentiate anywhere between lined up and misaligned partisan policy environments. This new component terms and conditions into state change, commitment exchange, and you may Medicaid extension details signify a good Popular governor made this new statement at issue (aimed partisan policy ecosystem). The latest interaction title of Republican governor varying additionally the government replace announcement changeable makes reference to some other aimed partisan plan environment. 7
Control Parameters and you will Repaired Outcomes
We were a number of time-differing handle details. The initial of these try a single-quarter slowdown of our ACA polarization measure, just like the we expect some extent out of “stickiness” publicly perceptions concerning laws. I in addition to manage for whether or not and when the state recorded otherwise inserted an anti-ACA lawsuit, most of which had been in the course of time consolidated on NFIB v. Sebelius circumstances. 8 The choice to document otherwise subscribe such a fit is by itself a rule off a state government’s aim to your the fresh new ACA, albeit a more ambiguous you to, since the in several states new initiator wasn’t the fresh governor nevertheless condition attorney standard. While the anti-ACA and you can Republican county governing bodies have been prone to file otherwise sign-up legal actions, neglecting to take into account it variable could prejudice the latest polarizing perception off governors’ later on announcements into Medicaid extension or perhaps the exchanges. So it changeable is coded similarly to the fresh new announcement details, where it’s comparable to 0 through to the one-fourth new condition filed or registered a suit, and 1 thereafter.