<p>You really have to read the policies closely to make a decision. It's going to vary depending on what the school is offering and what your own policy provides.</p>
<p>You have to look at a few things. Will your plan cover the state your child is in and will there be a good choice of providers that are actually close enough to the school for your child to get to? What services are provided to every student regardless of opting in? For my first two kids, all basic services were covered but they could not see a specialist. My daughter was able to get expensive lab work done for her private physician at the health center even though she opted out. But each school is different. I don't think the services are as great at the smaller school my next kid will be attending as they were at the big universities my first two kids attended. We opted out and are opting out again. If your kid has any kind of health issue, it is really worth having your own insurance because the quality of services at college health centers varies quite a bit. Also, often the health center will have just one specialist on staff whereas your health plan will probably provide multiple providers. If your coverage is good in that area, it's redundant to opt in.</p>
<p>Thanks for all this. It wouldn't save us anything to remove my son from our insurance (self + family is the same cost regardless how many are in the family) and I did a provider directory search and there are a number of preferred providers even in the little town the college is in. We're gonna opt out for this year.</p>
<p>ingerp ... we concluded same for our student at your son's soon-to-be alma mater.</p>
<p>We will opt out. D's school has wonderful health center coverage, which is included in the standard student fees. She can get all of her routine needs taken care of there. She will only need our insurance for nonroutine tests, xrays, or hospital admissions. Our health care will reimburse us for any of that as needed. The optional insurance provided through the school would be for that extra stuff. We have had to submit claims for things that happened away from home, and our insurance company is easy to work with.</p>
<p>We checked the local Hospitable and Doctors before we opt out to be sure they accept our plan ( GHI - Blue Cross ) ( 500 per year) still had to pay 135 to use campus health center. John G.</p>