We have a rising senior in college in MI. We live in AZ. We (parents) have a high deductible (5K pp/10K per family) Blue Cross plan through an employer. The Blue Cross plan is also very expensive. We don’t have any pharmacy co-pays so we pay for prescriptions unless and until we reach the $5K deductible.
When kid started college, we enrolled him in the college’s student health insurance plan, which offered a United Healthcare PPO. The college plan was, comparatively speaking, much more reasonably priced (started around $1600 freshman year and was $1800 last year). Plenty of in network providers here in AZ and the pharmacy benefits worked fine at home. But we just got notice of the plan for the 2022/2023 school year, which starts 8/1. The cost has gone down but so have the benefits. The network is called Cofinity and there are no in network providers outside of MI. Out of network the benefits are 60% coinsurance after a $600 deductible. There is emergency and urgent care coverage, which I believe is required by the AHA. It looks like the pharmacy benefits work OOS at some of our local pharmacies.
He is very likely to move back to AZ after graduation, and he’s been mostly continuing to see doctors here in AZ when home on breaks. I know we could put him back on our Blue Cross plan but given the high premium and $5K deductible, I think we’re better off dealing with the SHIP plan and it’s crummy out of network benefits. I know he’ll resist finding new doctors in MI and probably neglect care there. Any other alternatives? Is it worth looking at the health care exchange?