The Attitudes of State Legislators and State Medicaid Policies Related to AIDS

As the Medicaid programs become increasingly important payers of AIDS‐related care, state governments will face difficult policy choices in allocating limited Medicaid resources among many competing health needs. The state legislatures will play a critical role in these allocation decisions. This research presents the results of an analysis of attitudes concerning Medicaid coverage of AIDS‐related care among state legislators serving on health‐related committees in all 50 states. The model employed includes characteristics of the state legislators, their districts, and their states to explain the legislators' allocation choices and attitudes relating to Medicaid coverage of AIDS‐related care. The relationship of these factors to the actualization of AIDS‐related state policy also is examined. The model identified political ideology, party affiliation, and sex of the state legislator as the most important predictors of attitudes about AIDS‐related Medicaid policies. AIDS prevalence, constituency characteristics, and legislator attitudes are the most important predictors of actual state policies.