My D will be studying in the Netherlands this spring and insurance is not included as part of her fees. I’m inclined to advise her to go through one of the “approved” options recommended by her European school but am wondering if anyone else has been through this and has any words of wisdom. She may travel outside the EU so making sure that she’s covered both in and out of the EU will be important. Certainly she’ll have to look to balance the options that provide (or don’t) coverage for an office visit should she become ill vs. something more catastrophic but does anyone have experience with this? Any American companies we should consider rather than going with her school’s option?
We’ve talked about this before, if you search the old threads. My advice would be to put her on your health insurance while she’s away in addition to whatever EU insurance she gets. Our S had to return home for 2 wks while covered only in France, had a gall bladder attack, and racked up something like $3K in medical expenses that we had to pay out of pocket. You never know.
I’ll go check, Consolation.
Checked the cafe for the past year and don’t see anything. If you can point me to an earlier thread specific to study abroad, I’d appreciate it.
D1 was in Spain 3 years ago. We kept her on our insurance, plus picked up the policy the school recommended for study abroad. She had no health problems while there for 3 months.
I used Geoblue insurance from Blue Cross when my daughter went to Indonesia this past summer. For us, our underlying insurance is blue cross so I thought we would avoid any company trying to foist coverage onto either the primary coverage or the travel coverage this way. Rates were reasonable and you can get a quote on the website. We didn’t need to use it but I have faith in BlueCross.
I think the thread is more than a year old @MaineLonghorn might have been the OP. I know she participated in it.
Yes, I started a thread on the subject. Our problem is that our son has a bleeding disorder. It’s not a big deal like regular hemophilia, but if he were to be injured or need major surgery, the medicine that helps his blood to cost is about $20,000 per dose, and more than one dose is needed. So no overseas plans will cover him. I talked to a LOT of companies. The second I mentioned “Factor XI Deficiency” they said they were sorry. So I have him on his university’s plan, but it won’t cover him if he needs the clotting med. 
My d’s school mandates that every student studying abroad buys their recommended policy. D was admitted to hospital overnight in Peru this summer. I never saw a bill. Everything was handled by the schools insurance.
Definitely buy the school policy. My daughter spent last year in France and needed medical care. We were very grateful for the policy, which made things simpler than they might have been.
Thanks for the feedback. My daughter’s study abroad school doesn’t offer insurance. They just have several links on their website to local policies. Thus, before I looked into it (or have D look into it) and compare it to a policy with an American company (thanks for the mention of goeblue, @baxter), I thought I’d check to see if anyone had already done some research. We currently have Cigna and I will ask them if they offer an option. Otherwise, I guess I’ll check into the ones recommended by the university.
Could posters please include if their student is at a private or public university. Health insurance for study abroad was included in all fees for private universities for my children.
My D is at a private university and health insurance is not included. I was surprised. Her older sister went to a private university and studied abroad in South Africa and insurance was included.
Another aspect of coverage to consider when overseas (besides local medical care) is evacuation insurance. If injured or very ill, a student may need to return home via something other than coach class. I had emergency ortho surgery abroad and was required to fly business class home. Needed DH’s assistance in flight, but not a medical attendant. Travel health insurance covered the not insignificant expense of the two flights.
When one of our kids had a fellowship in Indonesia, the program’s coverage included evacuation to Singapore for major medical and airfare/some expense coverage for family member to support student if hospitalization was required. If getting to your student in an emergency would cause a financial hardship, that is something to consider. Daughter knows someone who was in a serious accident a 16 hour plane trip from home. Parent had to move there for a couple of months until student was stable for transport. Some plans cover aspects of this situation. Obviously, this is close to a worst case scenario; just another aspect of insurance decision making.
Yes a friend had her mom fall in Vegas and break her leg badly. It cost $100k to fly her home so it could be operated on. My friend had to put up the $100K before they would fly her to HI for the surgery. She needed a private plane and private nurse for the trip.
My initial research shows that we need to make sure to have coverage for such things. Horrible stories! But, that’s what insurance is for…those events we hope will never happen.
Actually, to me insurance is to cover HUGE expenses that would be hard for us to bear in the event the event happened.
This is one of the reasons we do not buy dental or vision coverage. To me those are just prepaying expected expenses and are not expenses that are a significant hardship to bear. Smaller expenses, we can handle and self-insure.
My daughter is leaving next week for London. We signed up for the coverage through the program and I thought it was very cheap, but not sure exactly what it would cover. Just got a letter from the study abroad director at the home school who sent a form for D to sign. Seems the school requires the students to upgrade to premium coverage, but since it was their mistake the school is paying the difference. She’s going to England, not a country with no medical services, so I’m not thinking evacuation will be required.
I have purchased for family members many times from this company https://www.medexassist.com/ for young folks it is cheap. never tested it (hopefully never will) but it is owned by united healthcare. and they have medical evacuation insurance. if you are in the netherlands medical care should be pretty good. but for like 20-30 dollars you get a great umbrella of protection.
now I have an older relative who visits from south of the border and she comes for 2 months at a time (inbound to the united states) i buy her coverage too, it is a lot more with a lot less in benefits. but she has coverage and in the united states . I would strongly encourage purchasing it. I have used another company before http://www.travelguard.com
also cheap and owned by AIG.
@zobroward I recently toured the Medex facility based in MD… nice operation.