government

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

As we learned from our article on the fate of Planned Parenthood, women’s health issues spark intensely opinionated debates.

While the government’s stance on Planned Parenthood funding is still up in the air, a definitive decision has been made regarding birth control: The Obama administration released new standards last week requiring health insurance plans to cover all FDA-approved forms of contraception, with no co-pay required.

The idea is to take a preventive approach to health problems rather than dealing with them after the fact. In addition to birth control, these other preventive services will now be provided by insurance companies free of charge: well-woman visits, HPV testing for women 30 and older, STI counseling, screening for gestational diabetes, breastfeeding support and supplies, and domestic violence screening and counseling.

Why Is This Even Necessary?

As it turns out, getting all of the recommended preventive health measures for women can be pretty pricey — even if you have health insurance that shares the cost. According to the website Good, the average American woman spends 30 years trying to prevent pregnancy. Assuming an average co-pay between $15 and $50, a woman should expect to pay between $5,400 and $18,000 for birth control in her lifetime — and that’s with health insurance.

It’s easy to say that using oral contraception or getting an IUD (also expensive) is a personal decision that women make, and they should live with the ramifications. But in reality, contraception — or the lack thereof — is a national matter because of the cost of unplanned pregnancies.

Read on for more about free birth control.

Everyone's panicking about the government shutdown, which may happen this Friday at midnight, but what does it really mean for you and me? It isn't as scary as it sounds — the government has shut down several times in the past. The most recent one occurred from Dec. 16, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996, according to Reuters.

The length of the shutdown (if it will happen) is still not clear, but it has historically ranged from a few days to months. Shutdowns happen when the government can't come to an agreement about the budget when the federal funding is about to run out.

What it basically means is that "nonessential" governmental services will temporarily be closed. Essential services like the military, police, fire department, and air traffic control will continue.

To break things down easily for you, I've rounded up some of the groups that will be affected by this move. Check which category you belong to and learn how you will be affected:

• Taxpayers. You still need to file your taxes by April 18, but you might want to consider e-filing. The processing of paper tax returns as well as audits will be put on hold. If you don't want your tax refund to be delayed you should consider filing your taxes online and opting to receive your refund by electronic deposit.
• Federal workers. It's expected that 800,000 workers will have to stop working temporarily and won't be paid during their time off. You can't voluntarily work for free even if you wanted to and if you're seeking a temp job, you'll need to review the executive branch ethics before you take one on. Your employer will inform you if you're essential or nonessential. Read more about your situation here.
• Tourists. If you're looking forward to your upcoming trip, be aware that several national museums and national parks will shut down. For example, the National Zoo and the major Smithsonian museums in Washington DC will have to close and turn away tourists. If you were looking forward to visiting those institutions, you might want to put your trip on hold.

To see how else you will be affected, read on.

In an effort to curb excessive gaming among its youth, Vietnam has placed a ban on online gaming between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. — for everyone. So even adults won't be able to access any online gaming sites between those hours. The order comes from the Vietnamese government, who has asked Internet service providers to block access during restricted times. They have until March 3 to comply, or risk being shut down completely.

Obviously, a gaming addiction is serious and certainly not positive — especially at a young age — but to ban a legal activity seems completely absurd. If it's children they're worried about, the government should give parents responsibility over their children's online gaming habits. It's fairly far-fetched to think that something like this could happen in the US, but seeing such extreme measures, even in another culture, is scary.

There's a huge debate going on with the government about extending unemployment benefits. If you have not been following up on what's happening, here is a quick snapshot:

• Right now, there's too much squabbling in Congress on whether to reauthorize the unemployment checks and how they should fund it. It's pretty much a waiting game to see how lawmakers will react.
• If the benefits expire, almost two million people will see their unemployment checks run out by Christmas as they have been collecting the benefits for 99 weeks (or about two years) which is the maximum time allotted for these checks.
• The time limit used to run up to 26 weeks, but have been extended about eight times since the recession.
• Some experts are saying that cutting off benefits will be bad for our economy, because it will reduce consumer spending, which will lead to less jobs.
• Others say that extending it will provide less incentive for people to find jobs.
• An average employment check per week costs $290, says the National Employment Law Project.
• The national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• 8.5 million Americans currently get benefits.
• To extend the benefits for another year would cost the government $60 billion.

Many of you have been there before. We've asked you in the past what's the longest you've been unemployed, and received an overwhelming number of responses. We've talked a lot about this issue and have given tips on how to file for unemployment and what you should do if you've been laid off. I want to hear from you now — do you think Congress should extend the benefits?

Do you think it's OK for the government to ban a company product, particularly McDonald's Happy Meals? San Francisco is the first city to rule that restaurants can't serve free toys with meals that contain more than 600 calories, and a certain amount of sugar and fat, reports the Los Angeles Times. Further, the city's board of supervisors ordained that fruit and vegetables should be served with meals that come with toys.

This move against serving kids junk food with free toys is brought about by the nationwide child obesity epidemic that Supervisor Eric Mar says "is making our kids sick, particularly kids from low income neighborhoods, at an alarming rate. It's a survival issue and a day-to-day issue." Mar adds that the money that will be spent to fight diseases triggered by obesity will cost up to billions of dollars. I'm asking, is this Happy Meal ban a savvy move?

It's important for people to know how and why our global economy came crashing down in 2008. Inside Job, a documentary by Charles Ferguson, makes the concepts behind the financial meltdown easy to digest. At the same time, it's hard to swallow the fact that several key people in the government worked for the best interests of the banks and not the greater good of the American public. In fact, the financial crisis wasn't created in the last few years. The seeds were planted decades back and were largely brought about by the merging of Wall Street and the government. Too many finance executives took high-level government positions, and supported the wallets of bankers.

In addition, the film not only highlights the intermingling between the interests of banks and the government, but also unexpectedly reveals the links to academia. Many prominent professors wrote papers on topics in which they were given financial incentive to skew it a certain way. In fact, a current professor at the business school of Columbia University, Frederic Mishkin, wrote a paper touting Iceland's financial stability in 2006 that he was paid $124,000 for. Iceland went bankrupt October of 2008.

I talked to Audrey Marrs, producer of Inside Job, who had also worked with Charles on a previous documentary called No End In Sight. To find out what Audrey had to share about the film, read more after the jump

Call me a dork, but I did a little jump for joy when the 2010 census arrived in my mailbox this week. I'm not exactly sure why I am so excited to stand and be counted – maybe it's because it is the first time I can list children in my household – but I immediately tore open the envelope, filled it out, and put it right back in the mail.

Since the first census in 1790, children have been undercounted more than any other age group in the nation. It might not seem important to list your three-month-old who can't even sit up as a member of the household, but considering that the collected data is used to determine where more than $400 billion in federal funds (including $26 billion for educational services and other programs focused on children) will be distributed, you might want to think again. Census information is vital to the strength of our communities. So before sending back your 10-question form, be sure to double check that each "being" in your household is counted – regardless of their age, citizenship, or nationality. And if you have preschool or older tots at home, have them help you count – it's a great way for them to see how every little bit helps.