<p>Sorry, haven’t been keeping up with the other thread – read a few pages at beginning and end and didn’t see my issue (although it might be buried in there!). But wanted to see what people think or have heard about this. Not making any political comments! Just trying to understand options…</p>
<p>The health care offered through my D’s college had a notice in the summer when they provided info on it that their plan may not be considered adequate under the affordable care act to avoid penalties; I think it had something to do with the lifetime cap being too low. At the time we did not purchase it, D2 is covered by her dad’s plan. But he is retiring in January, and I found out recently that adding her on COBRA is astoundingly expensive (~$500/month for just me on COBRA, shoots up to $1,500/month if we add her because it becomes a ‘family’ plan).</p>
<p>So I was thinking we may just put her on the college health plan second semester and use that through her undergrad years. I figured we would just pay the penalty, it isn’t huge. But today’s news makes me think that maybe the colleges might have to revise (or drop!) their healthplans that don’t provide adequate coverage. Hoping they would revise the plan, and maybe the cost won’t change much (gotta believe raising the lifetime cap on a plan used almost exclusively by 18-22 year olds isn’t going to cost that much).</p>
<p>So my question is whether anyone has heard about this from their kid’s college, or had any discussion with a college about this. We can also use the exchange to buy her coverage (er… I am sure we will be able to by the time we need to, since this retirement ‘life event’ occurs in January and we will have 60 days of coverage after that if we need it – plus our state is one that has its own exchange that seems to be working okay). But I was kind of leaning toward the school plan, at least for this year… now not sure if that is a good idea or not. </p>
<p>I will be calling the college to discuss this, but just wondering if anyone else has looked into this with a college plan yet.</p>
<p>Have you priced out other plans, either on the exchanges or off the exchanges, for your whole family? You can probably do better than COBRA as far as price.</p>
<p>A big issue is yearly caps. A lot of college insurance plans had ludicrously low yearly caps; four days in the hospital would have blown through the cap, for some colleges. Yearly caps will be illegal in 2015. So expect your daughter’s college insurance plan to cost more, if it now has a yearly cap.</p>
<p>Your daughter can buy a policy on the exchanges (or off the exchanges) for herself. It won’t be particularly expensive, since she is young. If she is your dependent on your tax return, she is ineligible for subsidies, but in a lot of states the cheapest plans are cheap. So that is also worth considering.</p>
<p>So the short answer is, shop around. Check out the college plan, and see what else is available.</p>
<p>I just got a letter about U of M’s health plan… but I don’t think it was about student insurance, I think it was because I’m an employee of the U and letters have been going out from almost all places of employment. </p>
<p>I’ll have to go dig it out now to see… I’m curious. Their plan is REALLLLY comprehensive though so I’d be shocked if they have to change it at all.</p>
<p>FWIW, it was far cheaper for me to get an independent plan than go through my U’s.</p>
<p>Yes, I know I can shop for her on the exchange. Honestly, I think we have not seen the last of “bugs” in the system, and they won’t all be in the exchanges. Insurance companies also scrambled to put their plans together this year, and may have their own processing glitches, and also adjust pricing next year. I worked on Medicare Part D for a pharmacy benefit company, and know that the first year is just going to be rough for a new program like this. So… I am considering staying out of the water, so to speak, until a year has gone by and some of those bugs are worked out. I like my current insurance/doctors/etc, so it might be worthwhile to do one year of COBRA for me at least. I will be checking the college plan and the exchange for options for D, of course, as well. And make sure we can switch to the exchange in the fall at some point if we decide to make a move at some point in the future (I admit I haven’t investigated the timing implications of that yet).</p>
<p>So… more research to do in the next month or so. But just wondering about college plans in general.</p>
<p>Is the idea that you would buy a non-compliant policy from the college for your daughter and then pay the penalty? I don’t think that works. I don’t think the college is allowed to sell a non-compliant policy. The plans were grandfathered this year, but not next year.</p>
<p>Well, that is what I am trying to figure out… so you know something I don’t, that the plans were grandfathered for some period of time. Okay, I didn’t realize until today that the college plans were going to have to upgrade (or that all plans would have to upgrade, really). I just figured the non-compliant plans could be sold with a warning, and those that bought them paid a penalty in addition to their plan premium. Guess not…</p>
<p>That isn’t too big a deal, there are certainly other options with the exchange plans – I am just wondering what colleges are going to do. Will they increase the quality of their plans and just up the price to cover it? Might not be too big an increase depending on what the plan issues are. Or will they drop their own plans and we will just all purchase on the exchange if our kids need insurance? Probably also okay. I just want to know…</p>
<p>Do you know the timing on the “grandfathering”? My D’s college plan seems to run 9/1 - 8/30 every year for a full year of coverage (you can sign up at the semester break, which is what I was thinking we might do). It isn’t like most plans that are calendar year. So will the college plan need new features in place by the time the Sept. 1, 2014 plan year starts?</p>
<p>Check the link I linked upthread. It explains about college plans. But note: if your daughter’s college has a self-funded plan, it does not have to comply with the ACA regulations, can still be sold, and is deemed adequate to avoid the penalty. So that’s something to check!</p>
<p>For my DD, who is in a school student plan, I went to the Exchange and they say “at your income level (which is minimal), you’d better apply for Medicade…” I am so confused. :)</p>
<p>She is in Chicago, where my CA insurance (Keiser) does not cover, so I bought the school student plan.</p>
<p>artloversplus, I suggest going over to the other ACA thread and asking calmom. She is amazingly knowledgeable about premiums under the ACA and who is eligible for what.</p>
<p>College health plans have to comply with some regulations of PPACA, but not all - for example, they do not have to comply with the guaranteed availability & guaranteed renewability requirements (not sure about the rules for self-funded plans, but I don’t know how many self-funded student insurance plans are out there). In terms of coverage, though, all plans for 2014 will have to be compliant — but a school plan would begin prior to 2014, so compliance wouldn’t be necessary until the next renewal. Even if you join mid-year, you are joining the plan that was established at the start of the year.</p>
<p>Figuring out how all of this impacts student health plans is a hot topic right now for international student advisors (another hat I wear), so I have been following recent postings on the NAFSA forums. We do require all of our students, domestic and international, to carry insurance. When I asked our insurance agent if the plan had been evaluated as comparable to those offered on the exchanges, I was told that it has not - but it is “probably comparable to silver.” Probably didn’t get it for me, so I tried to find out what is offered on the exchanges. I wasn’t able to compare plans, which didn’t sit well with me. I did a Medicare Supplemental comparison for my in laws a couple years ago and it was a breeze to get the info I needed. For now, I am just waiting.</p>
<p>As of a couple years ago, our state flagship, where DS went, would not accept all insurance policies purchased on the state exchange as being “good enough” to exempt the student from buying the school’s student health insurance (which is ridiculously expensive - $2700+/year).</p>
<p>With the ACA requiring certain levels of coverage, all the exchange policies may be acceptable now, but you should probably explicitly ask the school first if they will accept a particular policy before buying it on the exchange.</p>
I am so confused. :)</p>