Russel Sage Foundation: The Social, Economic, and Political Effects of the Affordable Care Act
Posted: 8/15/2017 (Funding)
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 represents the most significant reform of the U.S. health care system in decades. It was enacted with the goals of increasing access to health insurance, enhancing the quality of care and moderating the growth in costs. The new law is likely to have far reaching effects, beyond the way health insurance markets operate and beyond its impact on population health outcomes. It is those other effects of the ACA that we seek to understand.
This Russell Sage Foundation initiative will support innovative social science research on the social, economic and political effects of the Affordable Care Act. We are especially interested in funding analyses that address important questions about the effects of the reform on outcomes such as financial security and family economic well-being, labor supply and demand, participation in other public programs, family and children’s outcomes, and differential effects by age, race, ethnicity, nativity, or disability status. We are also interested in research that examines the political effects of the implementation of the new law, including changes in views about government, support for future government policy changes, or the impact on policy development outside of health care. Funding is available for secondary analysis of data or for original data collection. We welcome projects that propose novel uses of existing data, as well as projects that propose to analyze newly available or underutilized data. We will not fund research on the effects of the ACA on health care delivery or health outcomes (e.g., barriers to implementation, changes in the quality of care and health status, or trends in enrollment and affordability); other funders already do that.
Funding is available for secondary analysis of data or for original data collection. We are especially interested in novel uses of existing data, as well as analyses of new or under-utilized data. Proposals to conduct laboratory or field experiments, in-depth qualitative interviews, and ethnographies are also encouraged. Smaller projects might consist of exploratory fieldwork, a pilot study, or the analysis of existing data. The Foundation encourages methodological variety and inter-disciplinary collaboration. All proposed projects must have well-developed conceptual frameworks and research designs. Analytical models must be specified and research questions and hypotheses (where applicable) must be clearly stated.
Awards are available for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results. Applications should limit budget requests to no more than a two-year period, with a maximum of $150,000 (including overhead) per project. Presidential Awards, with a maximum budget of $35,000 (no overhead allowed) are also available. Our website lists upcoming deadlines and provides detailed information about submitting letters of inquiry, proposals and budgets.
A brief letter of inquiry (4 pages max. excluding references) must precede a full proposal to determine whether the proposed project is in line with the Foundation’s priorities under this special initiative and available funds. All applications must be submitted through the Foundation’s online submission system. If you still have questions after reviewing the information on our website, please contact Aixa Cintrón-Vélez, Program Director, at programs@rsage.org.
Deadline: 11/15/2017