College Health Insurance For Students

[northeastmom]

We have not purchased insurance through the college. It came close to my son requiring 2 specialists for the worst case of poison ivy that I have ever seen. He got it while still at home, and was on the mend by the time he got to college last fall. My son is covered under our major medical, but there wasn't an in network doctor in either specialty that my son could easily get to near the school. Fortunately my son did not require the specialists by the time he was at school, but it could have been a big hassle.

[gladmom]

If your child will be attending college any distance from home, I definitely recommend that you contact your health insurance company to see exactly what they will cover in that location. I called and only had to wait a couple of minutes to talk to someone and get all of my questions answered. I was also able to check on our company’s website for the names of doctors and hospitals 2000 miles from our home that are in our plan.

The colleges that I am familiar with give detailed explanations of the coverage that their policies offer, and they suggest that you compare policies carefully. Good insurance doesn’t come cheap. Stanford’s cost is $756/quarter, or $2268/year (a full year).

northeastmom: We should start a poison ivy/oak thread. My sympathies to your S. My D got poison oak in a very bad way over Christmas break in California. Her case wasn't as bad as the very worst cases that I discovered when doing a google image search, but was awful nonetheless. Good health, both physical and emotional, is so important in the ability to function well, both at school and work.

[northeastmom]

LOL, gladmom, I had a thread about this last summer. I don't even know if it was poison ivy, even though I am calling it that. The dermatologist called it contact dermatitis to cover all possibilities I guess. Sorry about your D having to go through that too. Just with poison ivy, my son required 4 doctor appointments before leaving to go back to school. The initial dermatologist thought my son had an allergy. The allergist started treating, but on the follow up visit he realized that this was a contact dermatitis as the rash changed. Then my S went back to the dermatologist and had to have skin biopsy. I was worried that they could not get the stitches removed before he had to leave to go back to school. They took the stitches out a bit early and it was done one day before he left. Fortunately, he started to heal just before he left to go to school.

Last winter he had a problem with bronchitis. He was diagnosed correctly at his school's health center, but was not given enough medication, because he required more medication than the antibiotic. He ended up just going to a hospital ER and we paid the copay for that. The rest was picked up by our health insurance. There was no charge for his initial treatment at the school's health center.

[churning]

I fear sending my child almost 3 thousand miles away on our HMO insurance. I went to my employee benefit department at work and recieved no clear cut answers as to what to do for an out of state college attending child. They suggested I take him off our insurance and get him his own insurance, but none of the policies I have seen were affordable or offered nearly as much coverage as my plan. His school plan seems vague, and costs an additional 2k per year, so I'm not looking forward to paying for that also. It was so much easier when I had an instate college student, I just had to move his providers to those up north of where we are. Since my plan seems to be under a blanket of health insurers, I'm going to see what they have to offer. Besides I'm paying for a family plan already, why should I have to pay so much extra if my child is supposed to be covered till age 23 if a full time student? On a side note, one of my co-workers has a child who is just being diagnosed with some type of heart condition, is graduating college in a couple of weeks and turns 24 in June. She is extremely worried that this child will have no coverage and will not be able to get coverage after that, and the tests continue. The girl has to drive down from up north to see doctors in her mother's area because it is so complicated to find specialists and get things done quickly before her health insurance runs out. A question I have: If your child graduates college, still under 23 years old, when does the insurance stop? On graduation, that month I mean or all through the summer? And what about grad students under the age of 24? Can they be covered?

[gladmom]

churning: When coverage ends depends on the policy. When it runs out, the family might have the option of continuation of insurance benefits under COBRA, which generally continues for 18 months. Under some circumstances, it can go for 36 months. You have to pay a monthly premium that can be pretty hefty, $300 - $400 or more per month.

Good luck figuring out what to do about your out-of-state child. If your HMO won't cover her in the new location, it is of no benefit to her. For $2K a year, the school plan might be much better than poor or no coverage from the HMO.

[mominva]

We have a regional HMO. We have never purchased the school sponsored policies; we were always able to waive. We were obligated to pay the school health center fees of ~$70/semester.
Our first two children went out of state to non-HMO areas. They had routine care and prescription refills when home; the plan covered out of area emergency care (in an ER; thankfully never needed) and the school health center covered the colds and sore throats.

The last one has gone to school on the opposite coast but our HMO is available in that region. She could even get routine care there if she tells Patient Services to transfer her home center to the one near her school.

[momtn]

One thing to keep in mind when you use your own insurance and waive the university plan is that the health centers usually don't direct bill the insurance companies AND you have no authority in discussing anything with them.
Trying to get your child to straighten out a billing mistake or go back and get a receipt to send to the insurance company is a challenge!

[notre dame AL]

momtn--A medical power of atty will solve the problem of having questions answered by medical staff when a parent inquires. We had this same issue arise at son's school this year--health center would not discuss the prescription bill or even fax a copy of the bill to us. We reminded them to check his file for the medical power of atty. We received the fax in 15 minutes! I cannot stress the importance of this esp if they attend school miles away from home and most issues are handled by phone. Yes, I know that they are considered adults, but who receives the bill and is expected to pay for it? The parents, of course. If I am going to give my student a full "parent scholarship" to attend the college of his choice, then I am most certainly going to want to know why I must pay for a prescription drug bill!!

[mmom]

We need national health insurance in this country. Our Canadian friends are very happy with their system. It's not perfect, but far superior to our patch-work, insurance company profit driven nonsense.

[LongPrime]

[post=19]A question I have: If your child graduates college, still under 23 years old, when does the insurance stop? On graduation, that month I mean or all through the summer? And what about grad students under the age of 24? Can they be covered?[post]

For our group medical insurance, family plan, (one child): Insurance ends one month when child is no longer a full time student either as undergrad or grad student to age 24. With insurance co. requesting phone # of school to verify enrollment every semester or enrollment statement.

The second part of your question "Can they be covered?"- Depends if you can afford it.

Our experience: We kept S on our employer PPO, high coverage program, through grad school. When I saw S wage statement (TA) I discovered that Canada, withheld a mandatory health insurance tax, which meant that he was double covered with Canadian insurance a much better program. When he graduated last December we got him his personal insurance (big BX) with high deductible -80/20, high coverage, without any problems since he was in good health. The cost for his insurance was within $10 of the difference between the family plan and spousal plan. The advantage to getting his own insurance (which we should have done earlier) is that once he has his own insurance, his coverage can no longer be denied because of health at renewal, and coverage and its cost would be at standard rates. Contrast this in maintaining group health insurance: As child comes off the insurance plan, child must qualify for the insurance based on health-less than good health means higher premiums forever, and with possible exclusions. Your friend has discovered the unfortunate downside of maintaining group/employer insurance too long.

As S graduated, he got an internship/consultancy with a big software company in India. Having his own insurance would provide coverage in India, and not have to worry about any exclusions and exceptions on his return. The insurance is now categorized as a business expense, deductible from top dollar rather than itemized expense.

He has just secured another short-term consultancy with big software, Redmond, at a compensation which appears to be higher than being an employee. If he was an employee, he would pay or have paid for him as a benefit a much higher insurance premium to account that company's greater age range and health of the employee pool.

Finally, the cost of personal medical insurance is the same if purchased directly from the provider or from a broker/specialist. Use the broker and discover the pros/cons of different companies and coverages.

[musicmom]

Seems as though each employer based plan is different.
Mine covers adult children through Dec of the the year they turn 23, whether a student or not.
I'm hoping son can find some coverage through school he will attend next year for grad.

[Jahn1012]

Some schools do offer very nice medical plans through outside contractors. For example, Duke, UNC, and NC State offer plans through a Blue Cross provider. The plans offer PPO (superior to HMO -- no referrals necessary) coverage, and it's worldwide, which is great for studying abroad.

[WayOutWestMom]

Not only do employer based plans differ, but different states have different regulation. In my home state, a dependent cannot be terminated from his parent's health plan even if he isn't a full time student until age 25. Colorado is the same--so long as the kid is unmarried, financially dependent upon his parents and shares the same permanent home address--he can stay on the parent's plan until age 25. Student status is irrelevant.

[owlice]

gladmom,

If your personal insurance coverage as as good as the university's is, then you can waive the school's. The schools want to make darn sure that their students are covered somehow or another, and with good coverage.

My question wasn't about personal insurance coverage, at all. I have good coverage for my family, and expect it is probably better than anything most colleges would offer.

My question was whether there is a law, regulation, whatever, that prohibits a university or college from offering their students the same coverage the university's/college's employees get. Let the students into that insurance pool, in other words, but have the students paying for their own coverage.

Reading of some of the crappy policies sold to students by universities/colleges, I have to believe that these institutions would never expect their employees to put up with such awful policies. So why should their students?

So I ask again: is there anything that prevents a university from offering their students the same medical insurance coverage that their employees receive?

[LongPrime]

I reiterate that parents should be looking to have older college children having their own private insurance rather than to look into group sponsered by college or group employee insurance.