What Is the Role of Health Care Insurance in a Financial Plan?

Grade: 11 Lesson #14

What is the role of health care insurance in a financial plan?

SS.912.FL.6.7 Compare the purposes of various types of insurance, including that health insurance provides for funds to pay for health care in the event of illness and may also pay for the cost of preventative care; disability insurance is income insurance that provides funds to replace income lost while an individual is ill or injured and unable to work; property and casualty insurance pays for damage or loss to the insured’s property; life insurance benefits are paid to the insured’s beneficiaries in the event of the policyholder’s death.

Health Care in the United States

Lesson Number 14

Correlated Florida Standards (See Full Text on Cover Page)

· LAFS.1112.RI.7

Essential Question

· What is the role of health care insurance in a financial plan?

· What is the history of health care coverage in the United States?

Learning Goals/Objectives

· Research the history and purpose of health care in the United States

· Compare and contrast health care programs

· Analyze the role of health insurance in a long-term financial plan

· Consider their own point of view of health care as a public v. private good

Overview

· In this lesson, students will learn about the history of health care in the United States and consider whether it should be delivered as a public good or private good; as well as understand the importance of health care coverage in a personal budget and financial plan.

Materials

· Scholastic Videos used in this lessonhttp://www.scholastic.com/nextgeneration/videos.htm

· Miami-Dade County Public School’s online data bases, http://virtuallibrary.dadeschools.net/

· Tablets or computers

· Internet access

· Promethean or Smart Board

Time

· 50 minutes

Activity Sequence

INTRODUCTION/HOOK

· Ask students if they know what would happen to them or a member of their family if they have an accident or get very sick. What would they do?Ask them if they know what happens to people who do not have private health insurance or qualify for a government program like Medicare or Medicaid. (2 minutes)

ACTIVITY

1. Showand discuss the Scholastic video, “Talking About Risk,” http://www.scholastic.com/nextgeneration/videos.htm.Explain that not having health care coverage is a huge risk in the United States because of the cost of medical care. (3 minutes)

2. Show the Scholastic video, “Hattie: Overcoming Obstacles,” http://www.scholastic.com/nextgeneration/videos.htm. (2:13 minutes)

3. Ask students who should pay for Hattie’s health care? Is it the responsibility of her family or the government?

4. Explain to students that our views of who should pay for health care have evolved since the early days of the United States and the question of whether health care should be a private good or public good is still debated today. Explain that a public good is usually available to everyone and is paid for with tax dollars. Private goods are goods and services that people must pay for in a competitive market system. (3 minutes for steps 3 and 4)

5. Explain to students that they will be researching various aspects of the history of health care in the United States, as well as looking at how health care is provided in other countries.

6. Break students into small groups of 3 – 5 students per group. Assign each group one of the following suggested topics:

o Health Care in America prior to 1960 – history and overview

o Medicare and Medicaid – program background and current costs

o The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) – history and requirements

o The Pros and Cons of the Affordable Care Act – why is ACA so controversial?

o Comparative Health Care Systems – i.e. what is the health care system like in Canada?

o *Depending on class size, additional research topics can include health care in other countries, non-profit health care programs or anything else specific to the student population

7. Show students how to access DadeSchoolsonline databases:

a. Direct students to virtuallibrary.dadeschools.net

b. Click on “Secondary” in the upper left part of the screen. (Note to teacher: Gale and SIRS, Facts on Fil and WorldBook are excellent resources for this project.)

c. Click on yellow icon for SIRS. If students are accessing the website at school, they should not need a User ID or Password. If they use the databases outside school, the User ID and password is “miamidade”

d. Scroll down and click again on the yellow icon “SIRS Knowledge Source” and demonstrate how to search for a topic.

8. Tell students to primarily use resources through the DadeSchoolsonline databases site virtuallibrary.dadeschools.netand to be careful of independent websites because they may be biased. (5 minutes for steps 5 – 8)

9. Assist and monitor students as they use their tablets or computers to research their assigned topic.(20 minutes)

10. Have student groups take turns presenting and sharing information learned during their research.(10 minutes)

11. Show students the timeline of health care in the United States from 1900 to 2000, http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm and discuss. (3 minutes)

CLOSURE

· Explain to students that no matter what their view about how health care should be provided or who should pay for it, they must make sure to include health insurance in their financial plans. Not having health coverage in the United States is a fast path to bad credit and financial ruin.(2 minutes)

OPTIONAL EXTENSION SUGGESTION/HOME LEARNING

· Students can discuss their current health coverage with their parent or guardian and research options for coverage when they are adults.

Sources/Bibliographic Information that contributed to this lesson:

http://www.scholastic.com/nextgeneration/lessons&worksheets/health.htm

http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm

http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/affordable-care-act-student-discussion-guide.shtml

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/sickaroundtheworld/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/before-the-law-understanding-the-supreme-court-case-on-the-affordable-care-act/?_r=0

https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/02_aca_lesplan.pdf

http://www.econedlink.org/lesson/535/Price-We-Pay-Health-US-Canada