My Policy is Medicaid
Submit your 3 – 4 page detailed description of a federal social welfare policy here.
Your description should focus on each of the following:
- purpose and aims of the program: What is the stated purpose of this
program? What risk, population, problem was it designed to address? - eligibility rules and benefits: Who is eligible to receive benefits for this
program? What are the specific eligibility rules – do they vary by state and if
so how? What are the specific benefits – and again do these vary in some
way, by state or by recipient, and if so how are benefits determined? Rather
than list all 50 states, identify states with higher benefits – and how much –
and states with lower benefits (and how much). - government agency (agencies) that administer: Which federal government
agency administers this program? Which offices in the federal government
administer, and which agencies in the states? - current (or very recent) number of beneficiaries: Find the most recent
official data from the agency administering the program. Summarize this
data, and recent trends – have there been more or fewer beneficiaries over
recent years? How does this compare with previous time periods? How
many beneficiaries in different states – highest vs lowest for example? - costs to the federal government:
- financing mechanism (federal appropriation (out of the main budget) or
payroll taxes: - costs to state governments (total contributed by all states; amount
contributed in states with higher benefits vs amounts spent in states
with lower benefits; etc.)
For 5-7, identify the budgetary costs for the federal government and if the states are
also involved how much do they contribute? How much do the states vary in their
expenditures? How is this program financed – where does the money come from? If
the states also pay, how much do they contribute?
You may choose to include tables, graphs, or other supplements, and these will not be
counted in the page limit. Neither will your references section.
Finally, every policy brief will evaluate how well the program is meeting its own goal(s).
In this evaluation, students will propose their own standards for making such an
evaluation, based on course readings and class lectures. For example – you may
choose to identify how far away or close this program comes to being part of Gosta
Epsing-Andersen’s welfare regimes – liberal, conservative or social democratic. If you
do this, then be sure to define the relevant welfare regime and make the case for why it
belongs where you place it. You don’t have to use this standard however, and may
choose to think of this program in terms of the poverty line or supplemental poverty
measure, or in terms of how comprehensively it addresses a social risk (think about
Hacker’s work here). This is up to you – just make the argument for your chosen
standard logically and then explain how it applies.
Formatting:
This should be written as a formal academic paper. The quality of your writing and the
use of accurate and appropriate citations of references are important. All papers should
be 1.5 – 2 line spaced (not single spaced), 12 point font, and sources should be
referenced using the American Political Science Association style.
Here’s the style manual:
https://connect.apsanet.org/stylemanual/
(Links to an external site.)
Here’s how to do your references:
https://connect.apsanet.org/stylemanual/references/
(Links to an external site.)
Here’s the correct way to do parenthetical citations:
https://connect.apsanet.org/stylemanual/paranthetical-citations/
(Links to an external site.)
Here’s a 2 page helpful guide from Texas A&M university’s library:
https://psel.library.tamu.edu/assets/pdf/UsingAPSAFormat.pdf