The influence of the media on health care reform

Health care reform is the largest health care policy change since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid. Previous studies have documented public opinion regarding the level of approval for health care reform. There have also been multiple studies documenting the influence of the media. The purpose of this study is to determine if the media exerted influence regarding the level of approval for health care reform.;A nation-wide telephone survey of 1001 respondents was conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates International from July 8 to July 11, 2010, after the passage of The Affordable Care Act (ACA). The sample size of 541 was those respondents who identified their preference for where they received their most news and information from television. The dependent variable was the level of approval for health care reform.;A base model was constructed to measure the general level of approval for health care reform before isolating the influence of the media. Party Identification and Race was highly correlated with approval for health care reform. Democrats highly approved of health care reform and Republicans did not, while only 38% of Independents approved of health care reform. Non-Hispanic Blacks, regardless of age, party identification, income, education or gender had the highest level of approval for health care reform.;Two different hypotheses were developed to test whether the level the level of approval for health care reform was higher for viewers who chose a more liberal media news source than the more conservative Fox News Channel. Viewers of MSNBC and CNN had a higher level of approval for health care reform than viewers of The Fox News Channel. Secondly, viewers of Network media news (ABC, CBS and NBC) had a higher level of approval for health care reform than viewers of The Fox News Channel. Independents that approved of health care reform chose a more liberal media source.;A significant finding of this study is that the choice of media is highly correlated with Partisanship and Race. Approval for health care reform appears ideologically driven based on the chosen media source for their most news and information.