Good luck in Wisconsin, @srk2017 !!!
Best wishes to the team @srk2017 !
@srk2017 Good luck! Hope he does well!
Good luck to your S @srk2017! Bring back some cheese curds for me! And some for @MotherOfDragons to make nice with the GC. 
cheese curds make my teeth squeaky.
@srk2017 …and some Hamm’s beer to wash down those cheese curds. Good luck!
Today’s topic: Health insurance. Will your kid be covered when they go away to college? Do you need to re-think things when you sign up this fall?
@srk2017 good luck @ Science Olympiad, sounds fun.
Health Insurance - D be covered under my plan when she goes off to college. She should have good options no mater what state she ends up in so we won’t get the university plan.
@2muchquan I love having a topic of the day (though health insurance isn’t often my favorite topic).
I think DS will have good options (Blue Cross) but don’t really know what works in other states.
@itsgettingreal17 Not sure, but I don’t think it’s always that simple. I think sometimes a school determines if your coverage suffices, but maybe that’s only when the coverage sucks eggs?
@2muchquan You may be correct. I’ll have to check. At the schools I attended, I always opted out of the school plan without any detailed questions asked, but things may have changed recently. I would submit my outside coverage information and they’d refund the insurance money (it was auto direct billed).
One thing to note is that insurance coverage will come into play when there’s a significant health issue. For the regular stuff, the university health center services will usually suffice and is free. Unless that has changed too. Then I’d really feel old. So I’d think the coverage would have to really suck for them to reject it.
I was thinking schools have started using their insurance as a money-maker (like R&B). I’m perhaps too cynical.
Well, for example, a lot of people in California have Kaiser insurance, and I’ve heard it’s pretty good. But it doesn’t work here, because there are no Kaiser facilities closer than a 45 minute drive.
@srk good luck!
My health insurance for our family will cover my D throughout college. Is there something I am missing here that kids won’t have insurance under their parents?
@Ynotgo I love the topic of the day too!
I just got home from my D16 senior walk out. It was her very last day of high school. They released the kids at 9:20 into the courtyard and there was a drumline and the kids went nuts. Shaving cream, poppers, streamers. papers, glitter all over the place. Lots of celebrations and many tears. I can’t believe I have to do this again next year with D17. So sad to have my kids leave one after the other.
I’m a bit behind on the posts, but I want to say that the college game is a “we”. It is S’s ability at school and testing that will help him make his target list, but it is our money (parents) that will help him afford his UG education. That makes it a “we” thing, so it’s OK if we falls into the conversation sometimes.
Now back to reading posts. Edited for health insurance - D15’s school required some type of insurance. If our health plan covered her at school she could decline the school coverage (it did and we declined). If our insurance didn’t cover her out of state, she would have been required to take the insurance. We did get her the insurance that covered her possessions and electronics while at school. It even covers spilling liquid on your computer and/or running over your cell phone with a car! Luckily, we haven’t had to use it.
It is school specific on common app and need to be checked for each school stating that you are waiving your right to read them.
@2muchquan
“Not sure, but I don’t think it’s always that simple. I think sometimes a school determines if your coverage suffices”
You are correct, at least for my older son. The university requires annual completion of a form that requests detailed plan info. The university then determines if the level of coverage is adequate. Since so many current health plans have high deductibles and even higher out-of-network deductibles, the university can come back and say that the plan does not provide enough coverage and that the student is required to enroll in the university health plan, $2000+ IIRC.
Some colleges are located in remote areas where network providers may not be accessible, in which case, the university could require the student to enroll in their local coverage. The problem with the local coverage is that it is not of much use in our home area. We have managed to not need the university coverage yet, with fingers crossed going forward.
Good luck @srk2017. Thanks for the suggestion of a daily topic; I’m also a fan.
I’m still trying to deal with yesterday’s topic of LORs though. Since “we” don’t have a set list yet, I haven’t even looked to see what LORs are required if any. I know one potential NMF merit school uses the CA. If you fill out the CA are you required to upload a LOR even if none of the schools request one (or two or three)? No Navience for us.
Re: Insurance. Until I started reading CC, I didn’t know colleges even cared about your kid’s insurance plan, but on CC it sounds like every school does. I had a bit of a panic thinking I’d been paying for a university plan without realizing it for D14. I looked at our bills – no insurance charge, and I don’t recall being offered a university plan or being asked about D’s coverage when she enrolled. So maybe this just doesn’t apply to state universities in the midwest (Kansas State specifically for D14)?
We have found our current coverage to be perfectly adequate. As @itsgettingreal17 said, the university health center didn’t charge for most visits. She’s been to a couple of specialists off campus, and hasn’t had any problem using our insurance for visits or prescriptions.
My parents had to waive insurance coverage for me more than 30 years ago, so the policy must vary by school.
My son’s school is very thorough, and in addition to requiring proof of coverage, they have started charging every student a $350 health service fee annually. (Many suspect to fund construction of larger health facility.) He has visited the clinic for the first time this semester for diagnosis, X-ray and PT, with each visit only requiring a $10 copay, so less expensive than receiving care at home.
I have managed to fill all of my son’s prescriptions while he is home as I do not know how that would be handled on campus, but I think it would be expensive, unless he could manage to take a bus to one of the national chains. Am grateful he does not have any serious medical issues.
@IABooks Maybe we should do a Topic of the Week? :))