Assignment 2: The Healthcare Market

Due Week 6 and worth 240 points
Use the Internet or Strayer online database to research the current health care delivery structures—both private and public—within your state.
Write a 6-8 page paper in which you:

Analyze the current health care delivery structure in your state. Compare and contrast the major determinants of healthcare market power.
Analyze the main competitive forces in the your healthcare delivery system in your state, and compare the major factors that influence the fundamental manner in which these competitive forces determine prices, supply and demand, quality of care, consumerism, and providers’ compensation.
Evaluate the positive benefits and negative aspects, respectively, of HMO managed care from the provider’s point of view—i.e., a physician and a healthcare facility—and from a patient’s point of view. Provide a rationale for your response.
Assess the efficiency of the types of economic incentives available to providers in the delivery of healthcare services in your own state.
Propose who bears the financial risk of a capitation payment system: the provider, the patient, or the consumer-driven health plan itself.
Use at least five (5) current references. Three of these references must be from current peer-reviewed sources to support and substantiate your comments and perspectives. 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. 

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Explain how selected economic principles apply to the health care market and the provision of health care services.
Analyze the factors that are influencing the demand and supply of health care services in the U.S.
Assess current economic trends that influence the cost, quality, and access to care.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in health economics.
Write clearly and concisely about health economics using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.