If you’re tired of wading through the rants of biased bloggers and media talkers, ProCon.org is ready to help you get the facts about the March 2010 US federal health care reform laws. So educate yourself and obtain some solid, unbiased, self-study material about this important landmark legislation.

This incredible website provides statements from experts and leaders such as Barack Obama, Ron Paul, The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), The Wall Street Journal, Sarah Palin, The New York Times, AARP, the IRS, The US Chamber of Commerce, AMA, and many, many others.  The statements are presented as responses to the following questions organized into several broad categories:

• “Bankruptcy … Will people no longer be at risk of medical bankruptcy?
• Congress … Does the new law limit health care coverage for Congress?
• Constitutionality … Are the new laws constitutional?
• Costs …
  • Will I pay less for health insurance?
  • Will the government help me if I cannot afford mandatory health insurance?
• Deficit… Will the health care reform laws decrease the federal deficit?
• Emergency Care … Will fewer people rely on emergency rooms for health care?
• Employers
  • Are all employers required to provide health insurance?
  • Are the new laws financially burdensome for businesses?
• Health Insurance Mandate
  • Are there penalties for not having health insurance?
  • Are there any exemptions to the mandatory health insurance requirement?
• Illegal Immigrants Are illegal immigrants covered in the new health care laws?
• Insurance Coverage
  • Can I keep my current coverage?
  • Can I get coverage for my child with a pre-existing condition?
  • Can my current insurance cancel my coverage if I get sick?
  • Can I get coverage despite having a pre-existing condition?
  • Can children up to age 26 remain on their parent’s health insurance?
  • Will lifetime or annual limits on coverage be eliminated?
• Insurance Industry
  • Does the new law encourage health insurance competition?
  • Do the new laws restrict insurance companies’ profits?
  • Are insurance companies still exempt from federal antitrust laws?
• Medicaid/Medicare
  • Will Medicare Part A, Part B, and Part D benefits increase?
  • Will more people be eligible for Medicaid?
  • Will the quality of care from public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid improve?
  • Will Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) benefits increase?
• Medical Malpractice/Tort Reform … Should the health care bill have overhauled medical malpractice?
• Physicians
  • Will there be enough primary care physicians to meet the increased demand?
  • Will physicians’ reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid increase?
• Prevention/Wellness …  Is preventive care covered?
• Socialism … Are the 2010 health care reform laws socialist?
• Taxes … Will the new law lower taxes?”

Whew! This is a HUGE list of questions, and an incredibly comprehensive list of opinions presented in response to each! So go the the website, educate yourself and then take action to nudge your congressperson or senator to work for America’s best interests, as you see them.

URL:  http://healthcarereform.procon.org/

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Thanks to LearnOutLoud for alerting us to this great free video resource!

“In this hour-long lecture from the Chautauqua Institution, award-winning investigative journalists Donald Barlett & James Steele offer their findings on the current state of the American health care system. They present the data of how America is behind almost every major developed nation in terms of its health care rank, and yet Americans spend more than almost every major developed nation for their health care.Barlett & Steele conclude that the reason for this is that a for-profit health care system contains many factors that work against affordable, quality health care for all and they mention dozens of examples of irrational, profit-driven motives at work in the system. They propose a single payer health care plan like most other developed nations have, but they acknowledge that the prospects for such a plan are bleak when $2 trillion are at stake and the health insurance lobby is the largest in Washington. This talk is available on streaming video and MP3 download through FORA.tv.” — from LearnOutLoud summary in email newsletter

To see the LearnOutLoud listing and find links to both the video and audio versions, go to:
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Education-and-Professional/Medical/Critical-Condition-Health-Care-in-America/26501?utm_source=FROTD&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Free%2BResource%20of%20the%20Day#

To go directly to the video, go to:  http://fora.tv/2007/08/20/Critical_Condition_Health_Care_in_America

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In these tough financial times, it might be a good idea to stop, go back to basics, and apply some fundamental financial management tools and techniques to your family’s finances. This great free resource from Bankrate.com will guide your through this potentially confusing process with articles on the basics, worksheets to apply to your unique situation, audios, and links to related web resources.

From the website:  “Bankrate’s Guide to Financial Literacy will shine a spotlight on 18 personal finance topics essential for financial success.”

[Acknowledgement: Thanks to my wife Bonnie, who frequently uses Bankrate.com, for alerting me to this amazing resource!]

Overview

This  website is divided into 18 major personal finance topic areas, with more on the way! Each area contains many subsections that are loaded with information! Here are typical subsections headings:

• Tips & Tricks — Helpful articles providing insights and unique perspectives
• Take Action — Specific steps you can take now related to this topic
• Spotlight — Background articles from experts reviewing trends and the latest thinking on the topic
• Polls – National and online polls related to the topic
• Money Makeover — Example of how you can apply specific principles outlined in the topic to a typical case study situation
• Tools & Resources — Worksheets you can use immediately, as well as links to many other online resources
• Miscellaneous information related to the major topic area

Instructional Design Features

While the website doesn’t provide formal structured training, it provides the following tools to support your “do it yourself” training:

• Broad overviews & simple explanations of complex financial topics
• Tools & worksheets to help you put the concepts to work immediately
• Case studies to help you see how the concepts may be applied in real financial management situations

The 18 Major Topic Areas

Here’s a list of the major topics:

• Part 1: The simple art of budgeting
• Part 2: Mastering credit cards
• Part 3: Understanding mortgages
• Part 4: Mapping a retirement plan
• Part 5: Dealing wisely with home equity
• Part 6: Credit scoring demystified
• Part 7: Creating an emergency fund
• Part 8: Understanding insurance needs
• Part 9: Maximizing a college fund
• Part 10: Financial tuneup
• Part 11: Planning for your heirs
• Part 12: Taxes made easy
• Part 13: Juggling debt and savings
• Part 14: Protect your identity
• Part 15: Securing a comfortable retirement
• Part 16: Smart borrowing
• Part 17: Growing your bottom line
• Part 18: Credit savvy tips

The bottom line: The current financial climate is no time to panic! So step back, educate yourself, and take charge of your financial life with this great resource from Bankrate.com.

URL — http://www.bankrate.com/nltrack/news/Financial_Literacy/Financial_Literacy_toc_a1.asp

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According to Wikepedia “Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. The term also refers to the practice of sustainably delivering those services.”

Developed by United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Microfinance Distance Learning Course is “… an essential primer for those who want a quality taste of microfinance, and is guaranteed to whet the appetite of those who intend to further develop their expertise in this fascinating field” – Normand Lauzon, Executive Secretary, UNCDF. And I agree! Having sampled the lessons, I found this to be a well-designed, flexible, and easy-to-use introduction to microfinance.

From the course introduction: “This Microfinance Distance Learning Package is designed as a stand-alone self-study course, or ideally, for use in a tutored virtual classroom… Additional instructions are provided for those who choose to partake in a virtual classroom setting.”

The instructional design features include:

• Professionally-narrated, interactive slide presentations
• Easy-to-use navigation tools, allowing you to repeat, respond to choices, go out to Glossary
• Interactive challenges enable you to earn coins for correct answers and get audio feedback for incorrect choices
• Challenging Practice Questions (in the Workbook) encourage thoughtful, unique responses to your own potential, real-world situations. Suggested or “model” solutions are provided as feedback.
• Video bonuses: testimonials from experts from all over the world
• Low bandwidth and high bandwidth versions are available
• The complete course package “includes a CD-ROM for the Computer-Based Instruction (CBI), CD-ROM with recommended and additional reading, and The Student Workbook. [All this media also appears to be available online.]

Here’s a high-level outline of the interactive online training. (Student Workbook covers this content also.)

Module 1 – The World of Microfinance

• Lesson 1.1: Fundamental Concepts – 30 minutes
• Lesson 1.2: Clients and Services – 30 minutes
• Lesson 1.3: Microcredit Methodologies – 50 minutes
• Lesson 1.4: Effects of the Local Environment – 35 minutes
• Total Module 1 – 145 minutes

Module 2 – Financial Analysis

• Lesson 2.1: Reading Financial Statements – 25 minutes
• Lesson 2.2: Measuring Delinquency – 40 minutes
• Lesson 2.3: Key Financial Factors – 55 minutes
• Lesson 2.4: Interest Rate Practices – 45 minutes
• Lesson 2.5: Measuring Financial Viability – 30 minutes
• Total Module 2 – 195 minutes

Module 3 – Institutional Analysis

• Lesson 3.1: Gauging Institutional Viability – 50 minutes
• Lesson 3.2: Donor/MFI Relations – 35 minutes
• Total Module 3 – 85 minutes

Total CBI : 430 minutes

All-in-all, this is a fun and interesting introduction to microfinance!

URL — http://www.uncdf.org/mfdl/index.php?_mode=students.home

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• Financial Literacy [The last module is an introduction to global markets.] http://www.bestfreetraining.net/?p=158

From the website: “This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.” … HUH?? But not to worry! Your instructor, Ben Polak, Professor of Economics and Management at Yale University, says this course is “reasonably hard, but reasonably fun!”

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Are you frightened by recent news stories on the potential for world-wide financial melt-down? This free course from UC Irvine and National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) focuses on “… global capital markets… financial intermediaries…security markets, organized exchanges for stock and bond securities trading… capitalization structure… mechanics of the buy-side/sell-side, the role of investment bankers” and many more related — and timely topics! So take this course and teach yourself what you need to know to make better financial decisions in these difficult times.

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Finally! A comprehensive course that will teach you all about personal financial management… and more… without forcing you to view a sales pitch for some financial product or service!

This training is objective, thorough, interactive, fun, and extremely valuable!

Course Summary from the website: “Financial Literacy is the first edition (US-focused) of a Level One introductory course covering a broad range of information about personal financial management. The course is the first of a three-part International Financial Literacy Certification (IFLC) and has been funded in part by the Heinz Endowments of Pittsburgh and developed by Advance Learning in partnership with the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board of Pittsburgh (TRWIB Inc.), Pennsylvania.”

This course is extensive, providing hours and hours of training, gently taking you to greater and greater depths of knowledge. You’ll find the following structural features that make the course effective and appealing:
* Clean, good-looking graphics & animations
* Logical, easy-to-follow topics & lessons
* Audio narration or printed boxes with script of narrations (choose either or both)
* Lots of “clickable” controls allow you navigate easily, go back, review
* Summaries and reviews that prepare you for quizzes
* Quizzes with drag & drop matching items, multiple choice, completion, and true false items.
* Feedback provided on quiz answers, suggestions for restudy if needed, and scores are stored in your account.
* Assignments that tell you how to apply the course content immediately to your own financial management chores
* Links to web resources for follow up investigation of a particular topic — like the IRS, etc.

Below is a list of all the modules of this course. Note that each module consists of many lessons, reviews, quizzes, etc. (Modules will take between 45 to 90 minutes to complete.)

Module 1: Introduction to Personal Finance
1.1 Financial Products (Checking Accounts, Short-Term Savings Products, Credit Cards)
1.2 Managing Your Money (Money Management Tasks & Products, Comparison with Cash Management)
1.3 Budgeting (Why Use Budgets?, Creating a Budget, Using a Budget, Dealing with a Debt in a Crisis)
Module 2: Mastering Personal Finance
2.1 Identifying and Prioritizing Needs and Goals (The Hierarchy of Financial Goals, What’s Needed When?, Expected and Unexpected Events)
2.2 Factors that Influence Financial Planning (Guiding Principles, Range of Products, Personal Factors, External Factors)
2.3 Planning in Practice (Emergency Fund, Managing Debt, Insurance and Protection, Short-Term Saving)
2.4 Review a Financial Plan
2.5 Module Quiz
Module 3: Employment
3.1 Employee Wages and Benefits (Employee Wages, Employee Benefits)
3.2 Your Pay Stub
3.3 Taxation and Government Benefits (Taxation, Calculating Tax, Government Benefits)
3.4 Module Quiz
Module 4: Running a Home and Raising a Family
4.1 Rent or Buy?
4.2 Home-related Insurance and Bills (Homeowners Insurance, Saving Energy/Money)
4.3 Planning for Children (Resources for You and Your Baby to Be, Budgeting for Education, Encouraging Children to be Financially Capable)
Module 5: Long-Term Saving and Investment
5.1 The Nature of Long-Term Goals (Inflation, Risk)
5.2 Long-Term Investments (Shares & Bonds, Packaged Investments)
5.3 Retirement (Social Security, Planning for Retirement, Retirement Plans)
5.4 Module Quiz
Module 6: Seeking Help and Advice
6.1 Keeping Informed (Types of Background Information)
6.2 Sources of Advice
6.3 Complaints (Consumers’ Right, Making a Complaint)
6.4 Module Quiz
Module 7: The Global Economy
7.1 Markets (The Fed and the Foreign Exchange Market, Stock and Commodities Markets)
7.2 Choices and Impositions (The World as a Global Economy, Social and Moral Dilemmas)
7.3 Module Quiz
7.2 Summary

This is a great course and should be required of every U.S. high school graduate! And even if you’ve been in charge of your personal finances for years, you’re likely to find something of value in this course!

URL:   http://alison.com/courses/Financial+Literacy

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In this video of his lecture at MIT, Tom Friedman provides a fascinating overview of the main themes in his book, The World is Flat, and describes exactly how the world became one flat, level playing field for competitors from every part of the planet. Friedman describes the technological and social shifts that resulted in the global economy, the global workplace, and head-on competition among individuals located anywhere on the planet for the same jobs. OK. This isn’t specific training. But you can use what you learn in this lecture to make better decisions about investing, educating your kids, growing your career or your business… even helping you decide how to vote in key elections. (Continued in Comment.)