Policy Research

Political trust, ideology, and public support in the United States for government spending on health care.

Nurgul R. Aitalieva , Sinyoung Park

Summary

Spending on health care has increased consistently over the last twenty to thirty years. Many advanced industrialized nations have universal health coverage; except for the United States. Lack of public trust in government threatened public support for government funding of health care. This article also goes over political ideology and attitudes. An argument that was brought up assumes policy attitudes are rooted in a general principle system. Research design and measurement are also key here when evaluating health care policies in the U.S.

Read Now

Policy Implications

According to government health care spending, the U.S. spends $3.3 trillion on health care which represents 17.9% of the GDP. The policy implications of spending this much is an improvement in technology and higher utilization of health care services. There is a theory that political trust is indicative of citizens’ support or opposition of government spending for a specific policy. This political trust is important because it causes the advancement of political minorities and it is a determinant for redistributive spending on policies concerning welfare, food stamps childcare, public schools, health care, foreign aid, and the poor. Political trust is the driving force for affirmative action and government spending on education. These are all policy implications interpreted from the article.