Targeted Burdens?: How Support for Administrative Burdens in Medicaid Differs Across Target Populations

To garner public support, policymakers often frame policy discussions, including those focused on administrative burdens, in terms of those deserving and undeserving of public help. This raises the question whether public attitudes about burdens are actually affected by the groups targeted for public benefits. To answer this question, we fielded a pre-registered survey (N=4,157) that included a survey experiment that primed respondents for various Medicaid target populations. We then queried respondents about six administrative burdens. Generally, we found only limited changes in attitudes across various target populations. However, respondents were most willing to impose burdens on immigrants but more hesitant for pregnant women and children with disabilities. However, public attitudes differed, at times substantially, across various administrative burdens with low levels of support for increases in recertification and in-person interviews. Various subgroup analyses confirmed these findings. Our findings add to the ongoing debate about the nature of the Medicaid program.