Assessing the Content of Television Health Insurance Advertising during Three Open Enrollment Periods of the ACA

Colleen L. Barry is Fred and Julie Soper Professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research examines on how health and social policies can affect a range of outcomes, including access to medical care and social services, care quality, health care spending, financial protection, and mortality. She conducts empirical research to understand how communication strategies influence public attitudes about health insurance, drug addiction, mental illness, gun policy, and obesity and food policy. A focus of this work is to identify evidence-based approaches to reducing stigma.

cbarry@jhu.edu

Sachini Bandara is a postdoctoral fellow funded through the National Institute for Mental Health T32 Training Grant for Mental Health Services and Systems (MH109436; Multi PI: Barry/Stuart) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She conducts policy analysis with a focus on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, including individuals with criminal justice involvement, mental illness, and substance use disorder. She also has an overarching interest in policy communication, public opinion, and message framing.

Kimberly T. Arnold is a PhD student in health and public policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is funded through the National Institute for Mental Health T32 Training Grant for Mental Health Services and Systems (MH109436; Multi PI: Barry/Stuart). She is interested in the implementation and sustainability of school mental health interventions for youth exposed to trauma. She received her MPH from the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health in 2014 and her BA in biology with minors in African American studies and health from the College of Charleston in 2012.

Jessie K. Pintor is a mixed-methods researcher whose work addresses immigration and health care policy, disparities in access to and quality of care for children and families, and the effectiveness of population health interventions. Her work uses a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including community-based participatory approaches, to measure and understand health care access. She holds a PhD in health services research, policy, and administration and an MPH in maternal and child health from the University of Minnesota, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Davis. Prior to entering graduate school, she spent six years working with Latino immigrant families in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Laura M. Baum is the project manager for the Wesleyan Media Project, a role she has filled since September 2012. Based at Wesleyan University, she manages ongoing operations of the project's real-time tracking of television advertising, including student management, web, and social media content, and data visualizations. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, and holds a BA from Brown University and a master's of urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota.

Jeff Niederdeppe is associate professor of communication at Cornell University. His research examines the mechanisms and effects of mass media campaigns, strategic health messages, and news coverage in shaping health behavior, health disparities, and social policy. He has published over 125 articles in communication, public health, health policy, and medical journals, and his work has been funded in recent years by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is an associate editor of Communication Methods and Measures and serves on the editorial boards for eight other journals.

Pinar Karaca-Mandic is associate professor and academic director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute in the Department of Finance of Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. She is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Health Economics and Health Care Programs. Her research focuses on health insurance benefit design, health care regulations, insurance markets, pharmaceutical use, and medical technology diffusion. She holds a PhD in economics from University of California at Berkeley and a BA in economics and mathematics and a concentration in public policy from Swarthmore College.

Erika Franklin Fowler is associate professor of government at Wesleyan University and codirector of the Wesleyan Media Project. Her research examines the content and effect of media messaging in electoral and health policy contexts. Her work has appeared in such outlets as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Communication, and Health Affairs, and she is the coauthor of Political Advertising in the United States (2016). Her research in recent years has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the American Cancer Society.

Sarah E. Gollust is associate professor of health policy and management at the University of Minnesota. She studies the intersections of communication, politics, and health politics. Her research has examined the roles of news media and public opinion within significant health policy issues, including obesity, health disparities, the Affordable Care Act, and cancer screening. Her work has recently been funded by the American Cancer Society and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is the associate director of Interdisciplinary Research Leaders, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program to support leaders engaged in research to advance health equity.