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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Obamacare And The Politics Of Universal Health Insurance Coverage In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Obamacare And The Politics Of Universal Health Insurance Coverage In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
In the USA, universal coverage has long been a key objective of liberal reformers. Yet, despite the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (commonly known as ‘Obamacare’) in 2010, the USA is not set to provide health care coverage to all, even if and when that reform is fully implemented. This article explores this issue by asking the following question: Why was a clear commitment to universal coverage, the norm in other industrialized countries, excluded as a core objective of the PPACA and how has post-enactment politics at both the federal and the state level further …
Reassessing Policy Drift: Social Policy Change In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Reassessing Policy Drift: Social Policy Change In The United States, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan
Political Science Faculty Research and Publications
As formulated by Jacob Hacker, the concept of policy drift turned institutional theories of public policy on their heads by suggesting that consequential policy changes often happen in the absence of reform. Especially prevalent in times of political gridlock or stasis, policy drift is a useful concept for capturing how inaction can gradually diminish the effectiveness of social programmes over time. By highlighting cases of difficult-to-see policy inaction, however, Hacker ’s concept sets a high bar for empirical scholarship. In this article, we suggest that analyzing policy drift requires attention to comparative policy outcomes, the implementation of reforms intended to …