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Healthcare research paper. 2-State Health Care Analysis of Maryland and Mississippi This 2-state health policy report should be prepared according to the following instructions. This assignment requires you to address each of the points below. Please use the numbering in the instructions below to organize your papers. A minimum of 10 academic references is required for this assignment and a standard style for references and citations. Your paper will get extra points if you identify the style that you used for references and citations and adhere to it. Please place that information on the top of the References or the title page. 1. Choose 2 American states (Maryland and Mississippi) Make a table comparing their population sizes with that of the U. S. One state should be in the upper 25 states in terms of per capita income and one should be in the bottom 25. Make certain to cite the source(s) and years of your information. Hint: The state population data can be found in LEARN in a file called Populations of American Statesz The state per capita income and state rankings can be found in the LEARN class material in the file named State per capita income in the Term Paper Assignment folder. 2. Age and Sex Distribution. (1-2 pages) a. What is the median age of each of your states? Is there variation within your states? For example, are your states older or younger than the U.S. as a whole? Are there more men or more women in your states? Hint: Start with http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf , also called median age.US states.pdf in the Term Paper Assignment folder in the class LEARN material. b. Look at the age dependency ratios between and within your states. Please discuss the differences as you see them. c. Using statehealthfacts.org, make a table of age distributions for both of your states and the United States. Examine the similarities carefully and describe what you see. You may add a graphic representation if you have a recent one (no older than 2010) that is not from a “.com” source. 3. Ethnic and Racial Composition (Draft due February 12) (1-3 pages) a. Compare your states’ racial and ethnic compositions with that of the United States as a whole. Go to statehealthfacts.org for this information. b. Are certain racial and ethnic groups younger or older than others? Look at median age by race and ethnicity in the LEARN folder, Term Paper Assignment. c. Have the racial and ethnic compositions of your states changed during the past two decades? Look at the Statistical Abstract of the US for 2002 and the Census Bureau’s Population Size Per capita income Ranking in Per Capita Income United States State 1 State 2 American Factfinder. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml# d. What are the population projections for your states? How do these compare with those for the U.S. as a whole? This step requires some on-line research. 4. Mortality, Fertility, Migration (Draft due February 21) (2-3 pages) a. What are the 10 major causes of death in your state? Compare those to 10 major causes of mortality in the United States. b. How do the fertility rates in your states compare to the fertility for the U.S. as a whole? When developing your answer, please examine examine age-specific fertility rates. c. Discuss migration into and out of your state and compare to the U.S. as a whole. 5. Health Care Services (Draft due March 7) (3-4 pages) a. How many and what percentage of the population is covered by health insurance? (In developing your answer, separate private coverage from public coverage. ) Are certain age and ethnic groups more likely to be covered than others? How is coverage related to employment? Compare these state measures with those for the U.S. as a whole. b. Are your states setting up a state insurance exchange as mandated by the ACA? If so, describe how this insurance exchange will operate. c. How many hospitals are in your states? How many hospital beds per 1000 residents? What percentage of these hospitals are in urban areas? d. How many physicians and other primary care providers are in your states? How does this work out in terms of providers per 1000 residents? Are there urban/rural disparities? How do these measures compare to the U.S. as a whole? e. How many people in your states are covered by Medicare? Please elaborate. f. Are health care services more expensive in one your states than in the other? Please show the data and compare it to the health care costs for the U.S. as a whole. 6. Medicaid (Draft due March 12) a. What is the federal match for your state’s Medicaid program? How much does the state spend annually on the Medicaid program? b. What is the income cut-off for Medicaid in your states? 7. Partisanship of State Government (Draft due March 19) a. What is the governor’s political party? By what margin did he or she win in the last election? b. What is the partisan make-up of the legislature? http://www.ncsl.org/documents/statevote/legiscontrol_2014.pdf c. What is the position and political party of the state attorney general? Is the attorney general elected or appointed? 8. Recommendations to the Governors (Draft due April 4) The Governors of your states have asked you to prepare a 2-5 page (double-spaced) memo discussing your recommendations for state health policies for the next five years. As you develop your memo, think of the health services needs in your states, but also consider the budgetary constraints. The Governors have asked that you focus more on the needs of the states’ populations, particularly those without health insurance, than upon state politics. The Governors are turning to you for your knowledge of health policy, but they will certainly have to consider the politics of health policy after reviewing your memo. Make certain that you address the health insurance exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PL. 111-148) Must numerically ordered (example: 2a., 2b. Etc) order and include graphics.