States have autonomy when it comes to state healthcare decisions and this provides the potential for a great deal of diversity in policy. It is eye opening when one compares states with respect to many of the metrics associated with healthcare. Examples of these include access and affordability, prevention and treatment, and overall health. Analyzing them inconjunction with the state’s total population, demographics, and average household income can help elucidate the rationale behind healthcare policy.
Instructions
Review the information on your current state of residency and compare your state healthcare with a state ranked higher and a state ranked lower by the Commonwealth Fund website. The Kaiser Family website can also provide good state data. Links to these sites can be found on the State Healthcare Analysis Assignment page under State Healthcare Analysis Resources.
You should analyze at a minimum: total expenditure, total insured, federal Medicaid/ Medicare expenditure, Average cost per resident, state matching rate for federal dollars, and any other data that reflects why you’re state of residency and your two comparative states are rated the way they are rated.
The analysis assignment should include all of the following sections to align with the grading rubric requirements:
• Introduction including your state of residency and the two states you will be comparing your state too.• A side by side chart of all the data points being analyzed within your paper. • A separate written discussion of each states data analysis• An analysis section discussing the differences in each state and any significant findings you found that could determine differences within your data.• A conclusion of your analysis and a reflection of your overall learning from the assignment• The length of assignment will be dependent on the amount of data you are analyzing. A minimum of 3 pages is required (excluding title page and references) but the expectation is you will thoroughly cover the content within the assignment. • The formatting of the assignment and all citations will follow the formatting used within your degree program (APA, AMA). • The number of citations will vary dependent on where you collected your data.