@rockinmomab - UNT doesn’t require, so there is not an acceptability issue. BCBS IL is just a different animal - it won’t extend to TX, except emergecies only.
It is surprising to me that UNT doesn’t require it!!! I’ve never heard of a University or College not requiring coverage but then again we are talking about TX lol.
They require it only for international students.
We are leaving early Monday for the road trip to college. We packed the car and sat in it. We decided to leave one item behind due to space constraints - one of the electric basses and its case. We can see the wisdom in garbage bag suitcases.
For undergrad we kept my son’s California Kaiser coverage which only covered urgent care and emergencies out of network - i.e. in college. He had all his regular doctor visits when home. And the school offered basic health clinic coverage, for a mandatory fee, with nurse practitioners for minor problems. It worked ok for the five years except that I wish he’d gone to the hospital once for severe food poisoning rather than just wait for a Monday to go in to the school clinic (which was not particularly helpful.) But in grad school I paid for the Yale plan as it was cheaper than Kaiser - and would cover him over the summers/holidays for urgent care/emergencies back in California. He never used it once in the two years, though, so I never found out what it was like!
I am not sure of a reason for S to come back home. We have no other family members in the area, and may be free to move, ourselves. We plan to visit TX for thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
reasons to come home, in no particular order;
- home cooked meal
- the dog
- to sleep in one’s very own room
- to hang out with the high school gang
- the cat
- catch up on Bob’s Burgers episodes
- laundry done by mom
- to break up with high school sweetheart
- emergency dentist appointment for that tooth, and
- hugs
Yowza, @BassTheatreMom @GoForth @classicalsaxmom !! Like @SpiritManager , we have Kaiser (Northwest) and so can avoid yet another expense. I am curious if y’all purchased tuition insurance, as well?
We purchased tuition refund insurance for 3 kids and used it 3 times total, for two of them due to some chronic health issues. One of mine had a serious injury costing at least $400k (covered). in care. I would, from my own experiences, strongly advise good, strong health insurance that covers them no matter where they are, without breaking the bank.
@drummergirl - you made me laugh at reason 8.
@dramasopranomom - we did not purchase tuition insurance. I don’t plan to investigate what it is exactly, but I’ve heard it mentioned on CC.
Well, maybe we have stumbled on a good sub-topic. What should one expect a musician to do on holidays and summers - come home? tour? travel? All of us here on CC have our own awesome values systems and ways of thinking - the GoForth family is thinking that S probably wants to have some musician action going on and would feel a bit “weird” if S came home and got a summer job in his home town. I guess we’ll see what happens there. We’re still learning.
@compmom - “I would, from my own experiences, strongly advise good, strong health insurance that covers them no matter where they are, without breaking the bank.” show the self-employed of Illinois where this is, and I’ll sign up ASAP.
I am about to sign up for tuition insurance. I feel it is worth it in our case.
@GoForth oh how I laughed at #490! I identify - we have the best gold plan we could get and it isn’t anywhere near as good as the average group plan that your average office worker can get through their employer and we pay much more for it, too, especially once you consider copay, deductibles and coinsurance. There is a decent BCBS plan I would love to have (used to have it with DH’s previous job), but we live 10 miles to the west of that BCBS’s territory, so we aren’t eligible for that one. So we pay $50 and $100+/month for prescriptions that used to cost $15 and $0, respectively, on the old employer plan. Just one small example.
@dramasopranomom funny! Actually, #8 happened before departure.
@drummergirl Love your list! Like @classicalsaxmom, #8 happened about 3 weeks ago (way better than a turkey dump, imo). But #2 - that is serious business right there. I don’t know how our dog is going to handle S’s departure.
@GoForth We are talking about selling the house and moving after our D graduates in 2018. We also have a 10 year old, so we have a few years before she is in high school to find a new home base. I would like to be someplace that I can do some real hiking on the regular. So I don’t know if S will want to come “home” much in the summers if it isn’t really his home (but maybe hiking would be a draw). I would love to see him do some European music festivals if at all possible. One of my goals for my kids is that they travel as much as possible.
@dramasopranomom We haven’t even considered tuition insurance. I don’t feel compelled to purchase it, either. Maybe because money is flying out of our pockets in every direction right now. We are not only getting S set up for college, but D is about to start her applications and auditions for musical theatre programs. Ugh.
A strong desire to come home on breaks and during the summer seems to differ from student to student. Another reason they may want to come home is to “be alone” in a clean room and sleep a lot. They do live on top of each other in those dorms…and you can’t underestimate the stress of the adjustment for some kids. A break can be really nice for some kids.
My D did come home and worked the first summer bc financially it made sense. If she was paying rent and working she couldn’t save much. But once she left the dorm she had to have a 12 month lease so … it made sense for her to stay and work the next summer … until we found out about an “amazing” program overseas which would prevent her from working much and still leave the rent to be paid! So much for planning. Luckily she was able to sub-lease. Each year brings new considerations.
Go Forth, what I meant was, if your IL insurance doesn’t make it, then get something in TX for him and pay for whatever it costs. We paid the up front money that everyone has trouble with, but thank heavens we did or we would be half a million in the hole due to unforeseen circumstances. THAT breaks the bank. In some states, a kid with low income who is over 18 can be on Medicaid, but it depends: some states require that you sign up for the school plan first and then use Medicaid as secondary. Over 18, a young person can be considered his or her own household under Medicaid at least in our state.
Hi, @compmom , - I see now. Yes. We have recently applied for (sent a check and application in the mail) the recommended UHC plan. We plan to renew it annually. It is said to apply nationwide, so S will be able to locate himself wherever he wants to be. Don’t know how cruise ships would work, though.
Half a million, uncovered, would definitely activate “plan B” for us.
How many of y’all have watched YouTube auditions to see how y’all stack up against YouTubeLand auditioners? I sure watched them over the last 2 years. There were some that seemed pretty awesome and seemed hard to compete with, but as time passed, they started to seem more normal. But don’t go and searching for the Skuty Love audition on YouTube. Really.
:)) Haha…I remember running across Skuty!
Got this smart tip from other NU parents. For most flights now, it doesn’t matter if you book round trip or one way. So I went ahead and booked his flight from home back to Chicago on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Then, after he gets his schedule and finds out which classes are actually going to be held on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I can book his flight home.
The available Sunday flights were already getting full, so I’m glad I did it.
Also, I did it on Southwest since they don’t penalize you for changing in case something comes up.