<p>I will have 2 kids in 2 different UC's (UC Santa Barbara and UCLA) come September. We have health insurance thru husband's work (HMO). I am wondering what other parents do under these circumstances. Do you opt out of University Health Insurance? If so, do you switch to a primary physician near school? I think it is required to opt out. What about when they come home for summer????
Help! Thanks!</p>
<p>I think it depends on your H’s insurance. We opted out with our DD, but found out when we read our coverage more carefully, that if she needed care “out of network” it became pretty expensive. Since she was going to school several hours away from home, any specialists were out of network. Just to be on the safe & convenient side, we are taking school’s insurance this year. This coverage is actually much better and will cover her even if she is traveling out of the country.</p>
<p>I called the 800 number on my insurance card and verified what kind of coverage he would have out of state and out of country; I asked LOTS of what-if questions. Then I decided.</p>
<p>I think given that you’re dealing with an HMO, you’re going to specifically have to ask them whether they will cover your child in school and if so how.</p>
<p>We’ve always bought the student insurance. Didn’t want any glitches in an emergency. Thankfully, never had an emergency. But we also bought the student insurance just in case H got laid off. When your insurance in tied to your job, if you lose your job–you got insurance problems. Sure, there’s Cobra, but it’s expensive. This way, D would always have coverage.</p>
<p>Depends on the HMO. If it’s statewide like Kaiser, then you can probably easily change your kid’s PCP to a doc near campus (and change it back for the summer). But, if a local HMO, your kid may only receive “emergency care” near campus. I would be surprised, however, will the HMO would cover the local college health clinic (which some PPOs will do).</p>
<p>Does student insurance cover the period when school is in session or is it year-round coverage? In other words, do I need to keep shuffling a student on and off employer insurance during breaks or summer?</p>
<p>S1’s school-sponsored health insurance is Sept-Aug, so year-round. It has a maximum benefit of $15000 per year, but no deductible and no co-pay. It cost us under $400 last year. We kept S1 on our family (employer-sponsored) policy because the cost didn’t change based on one fewer family member. So he sees his regular doctors on breaks and in summer through the family insurance. The school program is only for emergencies when he’s out of state and beyond our HMO network coverage. But I think it would cover him at home as well.</p>
<p>We definitely opted out of the UC health insurance. However, we’re on a flexible PPO rather than an HMO so it’s no problem getting a doctor local to the colleges. For UCLA the UCLA med center is obviously convenient. </p>
<p>If you want to opt out, which I recommend as long as your insurance will cover your kids, you have to remember to opt out at the appropriate time since once the deadline is passed you’re stuck with paying. At UCLA you have a choice of opting out for the quarter or the year. Do it for the year so you don’t have to remember. Make sure you’re on the email list for the notices as opposed to just your kids who might forget to tell you about the notices. Forgetting to opt out will cost you money.</p>
<p>btw - I haven’t heard great things about the quality of the campus health clinics (at UCLA and UCSD) but this is anecdotal. I think it’s best to be able to go to the doctor and health care facility of your choice (which is why I don’t do an HMO in the first place).</p>
<p>If your HMO isn’t flexible enough to cover them then you might want to consider switching to a PPO or some other plan if it’s offered through your H’s work.</p>
<p>If it is Kaiser there is no Kaiser near UCSB. The main provider of HMO health care in SB is the Medical Foundation Clinic. You could give them a call and see if they take your insurance.
I know several people who have had kids at the UC’s who had to buy the school plan because their private insurance deductible was high. Many of the colleges are very specific about what level of coverage you have to have to opt out of the college plan.
At my son’s school we had to provide a copy of our health insurance card and fill out an opt out form each school year. They will lock the student out of registration if they do not have the insurance info on file.</p>
<p>I , like the OP, have children at two different UCs (Davis and Santa Cruz) and each has different requirements for opting out. One required coinsurance of 20% so I had to but the school plan on top of my private insurance. The other had less stringent requirements so I opted out. Some of the UCs also allow you to pay a small added fee, even if you opt out, so that your child can visit the on campus health care center if needed.</p>
<p>We had kids at two different UCs, Berkeley’s insurance was amazing compared to the other UC and to mine! It was totally worth the $1200, it even covered dental, vision and $1000 towards wisdom tooth extraction.</p>
<p>Of course, we have an uber high deductible, so maybe if the kids were already covered I would would not have done that. You might consider how it would work if you paid for no kids through the work insurance?</p>
<p>Having kids in colleges in three different states was the reason we switched to PPO.</p>
<p>I answered your question at length on the UCLA board but I wanted to add something. My daughter at UCLA got sick quite a few times fall and winter quarter. She often got strep throat (which is why she had a tonsilectomy over spring break). Though UC student health centers may not be the best place to go it is very convenient. With LA traffic and her not having a car at least she could see someone, get a prescription, etc. when she needed it. If you could line up a doctor at the UCLA Medical Center that takes your insurance than I guess that would be ideal.</p>
<p>My parents didn’t opt out of the university health insurance, but that was primarily because my scholarship paid for it. Anyway, it was very helpful for me to stay on the university’s health insurance because first, I had no car, thus no way to get to an off-site doctor that was in my father’s network when I got sick (and I have a relatively weak immune system, so I got sick pretty often). I also got many medications with no copay that would’ve cost me varying amounts of money on my father’s plan (albuterol inhalers, allergy medicine, and birth control, most notably).</p>
<p>I currently have health insurance both at my graduate university and through my father (and it will last until I’m 26 as long as I’m in school), and this is great, too. It works because my parents live in Georgia, but I live in New York, so the whole network thing would mess with me.</p>
<p>I have to look into this as well, but I did read something recently that said international students had to have the school’s insurance. </p>
<p>All students at S’s school are automatically enrolled in accident only insurance during the school year, but I THINK our policy pays 100% for everything and it goes to the deductible until you hit that max out of pocket amount. Husband self-employed so we have a plan where we pay lower premiums for higher deductible, but there are no restrictions who you can see or where. Trouble is what they consider 100%. Always better to see a “participating physician” because they have to accept whatever BC/BS says is usual and customary… but that’s what I have to determine. Can doctors only participate in their own state so that the only option would be a non-participating Dr if you go to school in another state?</p>