Health Care for the Poor: Politics, Culture, and Community

Abstract

This article develops a state-culture model for conceptualizing state-level policy formation. The model is then tested through an examination of the interrelationship between political party control and the degree of state and regional support for indigent health care. ANCOVA and ANOVA are conducted on empirical indicators to test whether states with higher levels of expressed support for Democratic Party ideology will have higher levels of total Medicaid expenditures per capita among the poor, controlling for financial capacity and Medicaid need demographics. The proper role of the federal government in indigent health care is discussed in its relationship to a national vision of social justice, which requires a basic health care program for the poor that does not embody differential levels of care based upon state residency.