Voter Turnout, Medicaid Expansion Programs Linked in Study

Increases in Medicaid enrollment may be related to higher voter turnout in states that expanded Medicaid, according to Jake Haselswerdt, assistant professor at the University of Missouri. 

Medicaid expansions, a key component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have been a hot-button issue by major political parties. His analysis shows that this correlation is a result of a demand for new Medicaid beneficiaries combined with the opposition among politicians and stakeholders.

“Prior research has consistently found that people on public assistance are less likely to vote,” Mr Haselswerdt said in a press release. “The question of how welfare programs impact political participation is ongoing in policy discussions.”

Mr Haselswerdt analyzed voting patterns in 2012 and 2014, and found that increases in Medicaid enrollment based on Medicaid expansion programs were tied to significantly greater voter turnout.

Specifically, he examined voter data for 435 US House of Representatives races in 2014 and compared them to similar data from 2012 in order  to determine if the numbers had varied between the election years. Mr Haselswerdt considered the number of races on the ballot, as well as election competitiveness. Results showed that greater numbers of voters participated in the 2014 House races in areas where there were increases in
Medicaid enrollment.

Access to health care, which can improve financial stability, also made people more likely to vote. However, there’s also the notion that voter turnout could be due to voters who disagreed with the expansion of welfare programs. More research is needed to study how Medicaid expansion programs and the ACA will have had a political footprint over time, with an emphasis on voter turnout. —Samantha Costa