The Russell Sage Foundation has partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on an initiative that explores the social, economic and political effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Research funded through this collaboration will address important questions about the consequences of health care reform in the U.S.—from financial security and family economic well-being, to labor supply and demand, participation in other public programs, family and children’s outcomes, differential effects by race/ethnicity/nativity or disability status, and politics and views of government.

RSF president Sheldon Danziger remarked: “I am very pleased that the Russell Sage Foundation is collaborating with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on this important new research venture. Our partnership with the RWJ Foundation will allow us to greatly expand our support for research in this area, extending the program into 2017.”

Since 1972, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to identify the most pressing health issues facing America, with the understanding that health and health care are essential to the wellbeing and stability of U.S. society and the vitality of American families and communities. The partnership between RWJ and the Russell Sage Foundation promises to shed new light on the impact of one of the most significant regulatory overhauls of the U.S. health care system in decades.

The following projects have recently been funded in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

The Effect of Health Insurance Enrollment on Recidivism in the Criminal Justice Population
Mia Bird and Shannon McConville (Public Policy Institute of California)

Bird and McConville will study how health care enrollment under the ACA has affected recidivism rates among individuals moving through the criminal justice system in California. She will use newly available data to estimate the effects of the ACA’s coverage expansion on individuals who have been incarcerated and provide empirical evidence to help inform correctional policies on funding health enrollment.

Perceptions of the ACA: How Partisanship, Information, and Personal Experience Shape Enrollment, Engagement and Political Attitudes
Amy Lerman and Meredith Sadin (University of California, Berkeley)

Lerman and Sadin will use national-level survey data, along with data from field and survey experiments, to examine the political consequences of the implementation of the ACA. She will look at why so many uninsured individuals have yet to enroll and investigate how the implementation of the ACA has influenced individual political behavior and attitudes.