POS 138 Quantitative Reasoning in Political Science

HW1: What's the evidence?

Due date:  Friday, August 21st, before class

American Health Care

Your assignment is to search the web to find ten pieces of numerical evidence relevant to the current debates about health care and to prepare a two page single spaced report summarizing the evidence.  The data should address at least three of the following topics and come from at least three different sources.

• Health status of Americans*
  infant mortality* - life expectancy* - obesity* - other indicators*
• Health Care costs
  spending as a % of GDP (comparative) - rate of increase - cost of prescription drugs - pharmaceutical company profits
• Insurance in America:
  cost of insurance\premiums - increase in cost - % uninsured - uninsurance rates for demographic groups - changes in the number or percent uninsured - insurance company profits - employer providing coverage
• Medicare:
  Medicare spending - changes in #beneficiaries per worker - when will it go bankrupt? - annual cost - subsidy for Medicare Advantage program
• Health Care Reforms proposals:
  Likely cost of proposed health care reforms - effect on illegal immigrants -data on the public option: likely rate (or numbers) of uninsurance -amount of the "fines" for employer and individuals who are not insured  -polling data on the issue. 
• Other:
  Massachusetts cost and coverage - waiting times in Canada vs. US - public opinion on health reform --amount of money spent on lobbying by different interest groups --misleading or contradictory data.

Using Google, search for websites and newspaper stories that cite statistical evidence.

Summarize each piece of numerical evidence in a sentence or two.

For each summary, provide a link to the web page that provided the data.

"X percent of American are uninsured for at least".  http:\\wwww.website.com

At the bottom of the paper, include a 1-2 paragraph summary and conclusions.

Footnotes:

Include footnotes or citations, using the MS\Word 2007 menu commands:

• References | Insert Footnote, or
• References | Insert Citation

(using footnotes, follow the endnote style in the JPDA book; using citation use the Word format: after you complete the citation information, click on References | Bibliography to include the references in the paper)

Upload the file as an attachment in a reply to the "HW1 Health Care" message on Webboard before class on Monday.   [click on "new user" and fill out the form]

Formating:

In general, for all your homework assignments, use single spacing with a blank line between paragraphs.