Might the efforts of Oprah Winfrey and others encourage Americans to sign up for health insurance? Sure—and a separate vein of research in political science provides evidence that Americans’ actual experiences with social policy programs can have a pronounced influence on their views. Signing up people, not shifting public opinion, is the aim of the Obama administration’s latest efforts. But after five years of debate, it is clear that public opinion on the Affordable Care Act is unmoved by catchy slogans alone.
That’s from my post today over at Wonkblog, summarizing a working paper on the parties’ messaging on health care reform and its surprisingly weak impacts on public opinion. For more, head here.