Are you taking the school's optional health insurance?

[ingerp]

Our first college tuition bill arrived (oh yeah--the un-fun part) and there is school-sponsored health insurance of about $400 per semester on there, although you can opt out of it. I'm wondering if people tend to get this or not. Our son will be ~7 hours from home but we are not in an HMO and he shouldn't have any problems with coverage. A friend who's sending her daughter to the same school is opting out--they spoke with the swim coach (it's recommended for athletes as well as kids in HMOs) and he said in 20 years of coaching he's only aware of one kid who actually used it. And I know relative to the tuition it's pretty small beans, but as the other mom said, that's $800 we can spend on something else. I know people tend to think double coverage is great, but as an actuary, I'm quite aware that this country is way over-insured. My inclination is to decline.

Any thoughts/experiences/recommendations?

[Tigers Rule]

To rest assured why not contact your current carrier to verify that your student will be fully covered during the college years.

[archiemom]

Our school sponsored health insurance fee is mandatory starting with the 2008-2009 school year, unless one can show proof that the student is covered under another insurance policy. We will pay it, because our family insurance is with an HMO policy that does not have a reciprocal arrangement with a network in the state where S1 goes to college. We winged it this past year...no health coverage for him other than the school clinic, but luckily no need. Obviously if your student is covered by your present policy then I would not pay the redundant cost.

[BCEagle91]

We went with my plan (coverage while a full-time student) but he's not that far away (distance-wise).

[Consolation]

After much consideration and many phone calls we ascertained that our son's current coverage does not meet one of the standards for access to local (to the college, that is) care required to get a waiver on using the college's coverage. So we're switching.

We don't have employer-provided insurance, so we will just drop the plan we are currently paying for. The college plan doesn't cover a few of the things that his current plan does--like glasses--but we don't have any choice. The college plan is good, and thanks to the financial aid assistance, will probably cost about the same.

[jmmom]

This really depends on how your plan will cover the student (or NOT) and cost comparison.

Most folks whose plan will cover the kid seem to opt out.

Not true for us. Our plan will cover our S, BUT: we are self-employed and, ergo, have rather lousy health insurance (I was looking for a cc-approved word to describe it). If you are self-employed/small business and can't be part of an excellent group, you pay megabucks for unbelievably high deductible coverage. Our deductible is - wait for it - $15K per person per year!

So, for us, putting our S on his school's optional policy cost about the same as having him on our policy - for FAR BETTER COVERAGE.

YMMV.

[Consolation]

jmmom, that's the kind of coverage the adults in our family, also self-employed, have: $15K deductible. And for that we pay over $300 per month.

Our S is able to get coverage through the state, for which we pay $100 per month. His coverage is great--as long as he is in state. Unfortunately, only emergency care is available OOS.

The only reason we hesitated was that the provider network of the new coverage does not include wither of his local doctors. But he'll just have to switch. He won't be here most of the time, anyway.

[milkandsugar]

My D school has mandatory health coverage unless you have proof of insurance. We are opting out of it, even though our insurance is not the greatest. One thing that helped us make the decision is that the student health services are free to the students including simple blood tests, throat cultures and prescriptions. Students can see any of the providers there.The health insurance only kicks in if there is something major required like hospitalization, CAT or MRI, etc.

[drizzit]

My sons college requires that you have a minimum of a $500 deductible in order to opt out. Mine is not that good so I had to buy the school coverage for about $1,000 a year.

He is now double covered with a primary and a secondary plan. Since it is no additional charge to keep him on my family plan at work I left him on there as well.

[ingerp]

All helpful stuff. The other mom and I were wondering about student health services. My memory (such as it is) is that everything I needed it for back in the day (standard stuff) was free. I will call my insurance company (good ole BC/BS) and confirm coverage for my son.

[MiamiDAP]

Are you sure it is Optional? It is reguired at my D. place to be covered. They automatically add it to other fees at the beginning of each year and inform us about it by mail. We have to submit a proof of other coverage to get it removed. It is very stringent with inforced Deadline.

[2blue]

It seems to me I read here on CC that most insurance policies don't cover charges incurred while traveling abroad but student health insurance policies usually do. I could be wrong on that, but if your student does plan on leaving the country it would be an issue to research.

[FresnoMom]

Son #1: At that time, Kaiser wouldn't cover a child after age 19 so we put him on UCB's health insurance plan. Cost was about the same as getting him his own individual health plan with Kaiser but it was better coverage. UCB's health plan even paid 80% of the cost of extracting his wisdom teeth (we don't have dental coverage).

Son #2: Change in policy and now Kaiser will cover an adult child if he is a fulltime student, so no additional cost to us by keeping son on our family plan. Kaiser is everywhere in the bay area (son is going to Stanford) so this works out great for us. We have to remember to waive the Health Insurance plan every quarter, though.

[StitchInTime]

If your s/d will be utilizing your family coverage while at school, a few tips:

• Make sure h/s has a copy of their own insurance card
• Provide him/her with a cheat-sheet of information that is typically asked for when filling out an emergency room and/or doctor's office admittance form like:
  
  • Policy holder's work information, SSN, etc.
  • Allergies, current medications, etc.
  • Primary care physician contact info
• Review your policy provisions. For example, some policies have a high deductible for an emergency room visit vs. an ambulatory care facility or reimburse at a higher rate for lab work with one company vs. another.
• If you're part of a PPO, track down in-network doctors/dentists near the college.

[momof2inca]

For our S, we opted out of the university insurance ($600 per semester) for the first three years but are opting in for this year. Still not sure if we are making the right choice from a dollar/cents point of view, but we think it's right for our peace of mind.

S attends a huge university and is covered as a full-time student by my employer health plan, which is a PPO. The insurance is not accepted by the university's fine and conveniently located medical center but there are hospitals and doctors' offices in the city that S could use. He has no chronic conditions, but like many students pushes himself to the brink of exhaustion at various times in the semester, doesn't eat right or sleep enough, and tends to need to see a doctor and get Rx's once or twice a semester (which drives me nuts because we rarely get sick here at home). He usually waits until it's pretty much an emergency, and because he struggled with asthma as a child, his emergencies involve not being able to breathe. So a virus or infection can become an asthma attack/bronchitis, needing inhalers and antibiotics and emergency care. Instead of calling a doctor for a new appointment or finding an urgent care (both of which would require a lot of walking or a taxi), he prefers to go to the university med center/pharmacy which is a short walk.

His deductible from my private plan is $400 out of pocket and then coverage kicks in at 80%... so if he needs care, that adds up.

The university plan is $600 per semester, all inclusive and includes dental and vision, too. Because he works and is taking summer school classes, it's been impossible to get him home long enough for dental visits (since last winter break), so he also could see a dentist for his checkup under the school plan. So far his vision seems fine (knock on wood because both parents require corrective lenses).

Anyhow, we've decided to just pay the extra fee and have the peace of mind that by making his health care so convenient he won't wait so long to seek help next year. And he'll go see the dentist and get treatments there if needed. For summers and breaks, he's still covered under my plan, though he tends to be healthier then because he's less stressed.

Now I need to go find out about freshman D's college health plan, as she will be attending school out of state (crossing fingers that it's included in the tuition already).