Health Insurance

mathgrad
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:54:52 +0000

I just used my family’s insurance all 4 years, and know a lot of people who did the same. Looking back on it now, I may not have actually had the coverage required to waive - a lot of what my parents assured me I had as part of our plan only applied to treatment in our homestate of Massachusetts, and in that regard there are times I maybe would have been better off with the university plan instead (not USHIP back then, but whatever). But really there was never much of an issue either way, and as my parents kept telling me I had an equally good plan, I kept telling the University I had an equally good plan and received the waiver. I don’t think they look into it all that deeply.

Honestly, the Student Care Center kind of sucks, though - pretty much any time I went in for care, covered or whatever, I left feeling I would have been better off just staying home, especially after numerous debates with the hospital billing department over incorrect fees. There was a survey this spring that discovered over 30% of students trying to schedule an appointment for acute illness or accident had to wait over a week to be seen, 10% of appointments made were canceled without consent or even notification, and - my fave - 1 in 10 students never received their HIV/STD test results. It’s really my only complaint about an otherwise truly fantastic place - I know college medical facilities generally aren’t great, but seriously? we’re part of a great teaching hospital, and I think we should at least be as good as the average awful student health services. But! because of this and other recent surveys, it looks like they’re working to remedy these issues - I think USHIP is part of the start of that, with more to come. So maybe you’ll be able to get reasonable aid by the time you’re there.

(extra fun: check out the survey results yourself: http://ihc.uchicago.edu/Docs/Docs/IHC_SCCReport.pdf )