<p>I just got the bill and am pleased that it is quite a bit lower than last year. But I noticed that Health Insurance is $952 per semester. This seems quite a bit higher than it was last year. I was wondering if this amount is high or low or normal.</p>
<p>Our son has coverage through my plan so I just have to figure out how to get this charge removed from the bill as I did last year.</p>
<p>That’s about what my son’s school is charging for the coming year. Am thankful our coverage is good and has providers in the city where he’ll attend school.</p>
<p>Depends on what’s covered and what’s the deductible. DS is using a HSA plan with a well known provider, with high deductible plus a 20% copay. He is out-of-school and on a job without health care benefits. In relative terms, the health insurance is 4x his life insurance, ~1.5% of today’s COA at a high cost college. I’d investigate alternative choices.</p>
<p>At UIC, it is a little over $400 a semester. For in network, aka UIC hospital, they cover almost everything.</p>
<p>At Caltech, the MANDATORY health insurance is $1,920.00. There’s no opting out of it.</p>
<p>The health insurance for graduate students at MIT is $654.17 for the coming 5 month period (and that’s the extended/premium health plan), but the university covers the amount for RAs (and I suspect TAs, but am not sure there), at least at our son’s lab. So it’s essentially $1,570/year. For the time being, we are also paying about the same for him to stay on our family insurance plan so he can continue to see his pediatric group here (he’s been with the same group since the day he was born) when visiting us, but he’ll no longer be a “kid” in another year, so we might cancel his insurance from our end then. Or we might keep it just so he is double covered in case something tragic happens like he is diagnosed with cancer or hit by a car and severely injured or something. He could opt out of the MIT health plan if we were able to show our plan to be better (which we couldn’t as ours has co-pays and his does not), but being that MIT pays for it, there would be no reason to have him opt out of it (it’s not like they would give him the money if he didn’t take the coverage).</p>
<p>It was $1220 at Cal last year.</p>
<p>BCEAgle, that’s just about the same as what we’ll be paying for D this year. We do have other coverage, but when I called them to see if she’d be covered, everything would be out of network. I am (reluctantly) paying for the insurance because I’m just the cautious type about such things.</p>
<p>BCEagle, that’s about the same as we’d pay if d wasn’t covered by our insurance.</p>
<p>We can opt out of school’s coverage because D is covered by our insurance. Why do schools require double coverage? Or is it that the company(ies) require double coverage? Which company pays in case of a claim? Seems to smack of some kind of hanky panky. Company(ies) are being paid for redundancy.</p>
<p>One caveat about opting out of school’s coverage, if it’s possible. Be sure to look into exactly what the coverage is. If it is only for the months when kid is actually on campus, you need to have coverage for summer and vacation months. Also, school’s coverage is often not as complete as family’s coverage. Read carefully to avoid potential questions later.</p>
<p>Parents’ coverage may not extend to the region where the school is located or they might only provide coverage for in-network providers. In cases of double coverage, I think that some negotiation goes on between insurance providers. Insurance providers typically ask workers if their spouses have coverage so that they can do the negotiations of payment percentages.</p>
<p>$1632 for 12 months at Hopkins this year. That’s up $250 from last year. For us, it’s the right deal, as we are self-employed and our plan has a HUGE deductible. S’s coverage is way better for about the same cost as having him on our plan.</p>
<p>And, I have to ask, what bill is it that is <em>less</em> than last year? I want to get that kind of bill ;).</p>
<p>I really feel ripped off about paying for the “mandatory” health clinic fee
($700/term) at S1’s univ. located in a major metropolitan area within
my home state. I have health insurance which covers many providers
in the area. S2’s LAC in the middle of nowhere allows me to opt out if I have
private insurance as does my own big state grad school-- in both cases,
of course, I found providers and opted out.</p>
<p>I agree that one should read the fine print very carefully. If your S/D is healthy and already covered by your family plan and you can opt out of the college’s plan it may be worth considering.</p>
<p>In our case, a careful look at the college’s $1900 plan showed that it did not cover pre-existing conditions at all, emergency room visits were covered at 80% and there was a $250 deductible and 20% co-pay in network (50% co-pay out of network). He would be entitled to health visits at the university center regardless. Our own plan, although not covering much for out of state doctor visits is cheaper for emergency room visits. We have decided to self-insure the possible doctor visits that a healthy undergrad might need. For a more significant illness - we would probably fly him home anyway. The school’s policy doesn’t seem worth $1900 a year</p>
<p>Another “survey” and solicitation by the Republican National Committee, asks whether I should oppose the Democratic’s platform of “one size fits all” health care.</p>
<p>I feel worse that Goldilocks when I was searching HI for graduating son. What I wanted was low cost HSA with minimum coverage but had to settle for high cost HSA with high coverage. Insurance companies forces you to pay more to get a HSA account for only a slight increase in benefits.</p>
<p>Nice to know that coverage and prices are not uniform in the Republican platform, which offer choices. Comparing Red Delicious apples to crab apples. Apples to apple comparison but not the same, is it?</p>