ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses whether or not efforts to educate the public or segments of the public about a major health program, Medicare, would matter via an effect on policy preferences. The analysis begins with justification for relying on models and evidence from the field of political science to predict the role of information concerning Medicare policy. The chapter describes the models and evidence linking information and public opinion that inform the hypotheses. It also describes the data and the dependent and independent variables included in the analyses. The chapter contains the results explaining how information is distributed among segments of the population, the impact of Medicare knowledge, and a discussion of the implications for policy outcomes and future research. It presents a range of empirical evidence linking political knowledge with political behavior and opinions. Further research using other indices would provide a more comprehensive understanding of how the effects vary by information and policy type.
