Financing the welfare state in times of extreme crisis: public support for health care spending during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany

Abstract

Employing new and original survey data collected in three waves (April/May and November 2020 as well as May 2021) in Germany, this paper studies the dynamics of individual-level support for additional health care spending. A first major finding is that, so far, health care spending preferences have not radically changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, at least at the aggregate level. A more detailed analysis reveals, secondly, that individual-level support for additional spending on health care is strongly conditioned by performance perceptions and, to a lesser extent, general political trust. Citizens who regard the system as badly (well) prepared to cope with the crisis are more likely to support (oppose) additional spending. Higher levels of political trust are also positively associated with spending support, but to a lesser degree. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for policy-making and welfare state politics in the post-pandemic era.

Welfare state support during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Change and continuity in public attitudes towards social policies in Germany

“…For the UK (April–September 2020) Blumenau et al ( 2021 ) find no evidence that exposure to pandemic‐induced shocks affected attitudes towards the role of government in economic or social policy. Busemeyer ( 2021 ) finds stable preferences for health care spending during the pandemic. Hence, the preliminary evidence from these studies suggests that public opinion did not move as much as public debates about the revival of the welfare state and an “end of austerity” suggest.…”

Who deserves what and why during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Applying the CARIN principles of deservingness to the American welfare state

“…Furthermore, this framework has been applied in a variety of European contexts (Hilmar, 2019 ; Jørgensen & Thomsen, 2016 ; Osipovič, 2015 ), but—to our knowledge—it has not yet been extensively applied to measure the deservingness of welfare target groups in the US (for one example, see Jensen & Petersen, 2017 ). It is worth noting that there has been no shortage of research related to the pandemic's impact on, for instance, risk perceptions (Breznau, 2021 ), social behaviour (Erev et al, 2020 ), and health spending (Busemeyer, 2021 ). Nonetheless, there is a need for work applying the CARIN framework in the US.…”

El apoyo social a las políticas públicas en épocas de crisis: preferencias de gasto público durante la pandemia y la Gran Recesión

“…Y, en pleno proceso de recuperación, tiene lugar un colapso sin precedentes, generado por una pandemia mundial. Esto ha supuesto una excepcional prueba de estrés para el sistema de bienestar, que ha debido dar respuesta inmediata a las ingentes necesidades sociales, produciéndose un aumento extraordinario del gasto (Busemeyer, 2021). Los gobiernos han tenido que adoptar decisiones cruciales sin información suficiente sobre sus consecuencias y costes, o sobre la postura de la opinión pública (Altiparmakis et al, 2021).…”