Financial literacy and healthcare coverage...

A recent case of the shingles got me thinking about financial literacy and
understanding the importance of healthcare coverage and related healthcare costs. My shingles bout only cost me a $20 co-pay at a neighborhood urgent care center, a $20 co-pay for a follow-up visit to my family physician, and 19 dollars and some change for prescriptions. However, these prices were all thanks to having healthcare coverage provided by my employer, substantially mitigating the risk I could have had had I not been covered by health insurance.

Understanding healthcare coverage options and the risk associated with not having healthcare coverage are important financial literacy lessons for students of any age. Personal finance educators can prepare to teach these important financial literacy lessons on insurance through professional development opportunities offered by the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation (Link: http://www.griffithfoundation.org/k-12/rmi-education/). Through online curriculum resources and the ever-popular Insurance Education Institutes, K-12 teachers can develop themselves professionally in order to properly prepare their students with risk management and insurance lessons.

With ever-rising healthcare costs nationwide and more restrictive healthcare coverage options, Americans must be prepared with clear, concise, and understandable information in order to make appropriate decisions when choosing a healthcare plan for themselves or for their family. In offering comprehensive personal finance education programs, as educators, we must equip ourselves adequately in order to have up-to-date teaching resources for our classroom.

Be sure to check out this important content area within personal finance education and take advantage of the resources provided by organizations such as the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation and business education professsional organizations!