<p>A word of warning to parents of students who attend colleges that require students to have health insurance. Our son goes to Columbia which requires students to prove they have health insurance or they are automatically enrolled in the University's policy and the cost is added to your tuition bill. In year one we were involved with the initial enrollment process and the information given to parents highlighted this trap and we made sure that our son jumped through the hoops to avoid this costly, unnecessary policy. Thereafter, we allowed our independent minded self sufficient student to take care of the paperwork by himself. We assumed, however, that once you opted out, you were out for your 4 years. HUGE mistake. We discovered in January (when they first sent him an insurance card) that he was enrolled in the university's health insurance policy and that the cost had been tacked onto his student account which we have to pay. Appeals to common sense fell on deaf ears and we are having to eat this huge, unnecessary expense. So - lesson to all parents: remind their students EVERY YEAR to look into this trap.</p>
<p>I think it’s standard for the waiver to have to be filled out every year. I know my daughter had to do that when she was enrolled at Cornell, and she always needed to ask my husband (we got our health insurance through his job) for obscure details about her coverage.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that most students would have sufficient information to fill out an insurance waiver without input from the parent who is the policyholder. So if you don’t get questions about this from your kid, it should set off alarms in your mind.</p>
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<p>I do not understand why would you think that the school would assume that you would have health insurance for the subsequent 3 years after opting out year one. In this economy, people getting downsized from jobs in record numbers (the plan ends at the end of that business day), people retire, change jobs, health insurance plans change during open enrollment periods, and people change health insurance plans. </p>
<p>It has been my experience like Marian’s that we receive a notice each year asking us about about any changes in our health insurance.</p>
<p>Your S is a junior, correct? What happened last year? I looked up the health insurance fee, and it is $2090 for the year. Did your S not know anything about this? (Perhaps he could pay it back to you?)</p>
<p>He must have taken care of it the second year and it fell off of our radar. We didn’t receive any emails from the college (but he did and ignored them). He will be suffering the consequences for that - although paying it back is not possible from an unemployed college student… My point was to highlight for parents that we cannot lull ourselves into a false sense of security that our brilliant students are capable of handling routine details - they aren’t…</p>
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<p>Perhaps your son could look into taking the Columbia bartending course, and doing a some of bartending jobs to help pay off some of this expense.</p>
<p>[Mixology</a> Classes | Columbia Bartending Agency and School of Mixology](<a href=“http://columbiabartending.com/registration/]Mixology”>http://columbiabartending.com/registration/)</p>
<p>The parents would NOT receive any emails about opting out of the health insurance. All such info would go to the student. Our kids also had to opt out each of the years they were in college (including grad school for DS). It was very easy to do…done online.</p>
<p>The one thing we had both of our kids do was sign privacy release forms so we could receive the bursars bills. </p>
<p>All parents should read the itemized bill the student receives before the start of the school year to check for any inaccuracies (yes those happen), and to see what they are being billed FOR. The health insurance cost appears on this bill.</p>
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Really no need to bother with waivers. All my kids’ college mailings came in their name, but addressed to their home address, and were promptly opened by me. They knew better than to even think of objecting given the fact we I was paying the bills. When you’re talking about thousands of dollars, best not to leave the details to those whose frontal lobes are still in development…</p>
<p>MommaJ…some schools send only electronic bills and they go to the student…unless your student signs a waiver so YOU can get the bills too.</p>
<p>Ah, in that case (never had this type of billing).</p>
<p>I took care of the health insurance for D1 freshman year and she took care of them subsequent years. I believe the first year that she took over, she made this same mistake. She paid for the first semester and then I noticed in the bill and made sure she removed them the second semester. We were the ones that suffered from the consequences. I know it’s not fair.</p>
<p>Many schools allow students to add an “authorized user” to receive bill notifications and make payments.</p>
<p>We have waived the insurance, but I do the math first. The state of D’s school requires students to be covered and sets minimum policy requirements. At my office, we can select between a basic policy or pay more for a buy-up option. When D started college I had to purchase the more expensive plan to meet their requirements. I compared the cost difference between purchasing their plan and the extra premium, and it’s actually pretty close.</p>
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<p>I beg to differ…</p>
<p>My daughter gets the tuition bills electronically. She gave me her ID and password and I go review the bill each term and pay directly. It makes things easier.</p>
<p>thumper, my DD now immediately downloads bill and sends pdf to me and her dad. If there are any charges we werent expecting, it gives us time to resolve. One semester she signed up for 19 credits and there was an extra charge for credits over 18 (is this common, who knows). We discussed with her, if she couldnt handle, she had to drop while the money would be refunded.</p>
<p>At DS1 school, parents get a quarterly “information” newsletter. It pretty much includes everything that may be coming up that the student may have to handle. It talks about billing, financial aid requirements, medical insurance, graduation requirements, enrollment, etc. I think it’s the college’s way of saying - Do you need to talk to your kid about this - do it now.</p>
<p>Some parents tell their children any mistakes the children make on their own must be paid back to the parents. This makes the students either wise up early or give their parents copies of everything.</p>
<p>I have my D’s password and can fully access her accounts, except for email. I have no interest in her emails with her friends. Anyway, her first two years my health insurance did not have any providers in her area so I had to pay for the school coverage. However, her school (a SUNY) is really reasonable - about 400 for the year. In January, my employer switched insurance companies and there are now doctors available to her so I did the waiver.</p>
<p>What Kayf says is also a way of dealing with the billing. I do believe most schools will allow limited access to the bursars information with a release. Our kids did this and both schools allowed us (the parents) to have our own password, and we also received the billing statements via email. </p>
<p>I would say…families have many options to deal with these bills…whatever works for your family is fine.</p>
<p>So where can I find insurance that is cheaper than Columbia?</p>