<p>It is "Time to Choose" our health care package and determine our flexible benefits contribution for next year. Can anyone enlighten me about what kind of coverage is typically available to students? Will my son be able to get his prescriptions filled through the student health center? Or does coverage vary greatly, depending on the school?</p>
<p>We chose not to pay for the student health coverage because our kids are covered by our policy, but they do have complete access to the student health center, which is covered by the basic student fees. They get prescriptions filled at a local pharmacy, using our insurance coverage. The university doesn't allow students to turn down their coverage without proof that the parents' policy is better or equal to theirs.</p>
<p>I think this isn't a call you can make til your son gets into college. It may depend in part on whether he has some chronic condition that he's currently getting treatment for (including psychological), which may make it easier to maintain "home" coverage. It may also depend on what kind of on/near campus clinical/emergency care is available. Just as a practical matter, in an emergency or urgent care situation your son might have easier access in his college town if he's on the college's own plan. And in any case, some family coverages won't let you take a student off and then put him back on. We may have double paid in some respects, but there were in fact a couple of times when we thought it was worth it.</p>
<p>We did the same, cause we weren't sure what we were getting from the college and a casual read of their policy showed that ours was better.</p>
<p>If my son is just sick with flu and such, he can go to the health center to get tylenol or even Tamiflu. Serious illness is covered by our insurance.</p>
<p>1moremom,</p>
<p>I understand where you are coming from because we are also in the middle of our open enrollement season also. So whatever changes you make will be in effect next fall when your child goes to college. As you know, your child is eligible to remain on your plan until age of 19 or 23 if they are a full time college student. </p>
<p>What most of the parents are telling you is true, that must prove that you have a minimal amount coverage as dictated by the by each school's health plan. Your plan will work in conjunction with the student health plan but if your child has a serious illness needing hospitalization or has a chronic ilness (like our good friend Candi), then you will need to make sure that they can go to the doctor to continue their treatments.</p>
<p>What you really need to look at is if the coverage you have is part of a national providor network. For example, I live in NYC and the plan that I have she goes to the doctor, pay co-payments etc. While she it at school, if she has something serious or needs to see a doctor she could call our plan or look on the web to find a doctor who is in the plan in New Hampshire where she attends school. She would go to the doctor there and the same co-payments would. </p>
<p>hope this answers your question. All the best</p>
<p>Our college son was covered by our HMO while in college. I scheduled medical checkups for when he was home (no need for prescription medicines). We also had to buy basic health coverage from his college that covered visits to the infirmary, flu shots (when there was no shortage!), and the like. I did have a Flexible Spending Account for medical expenses which came in handy when my S's glasses broke and he had to get them replaced in a hurry.
The best thing is to budget for emergencies such as these. As far as other coverage, it's better to wait until you know where your son will be going.</p>
<p>This makes me wonder how Candi is doing. She sort-of disappeared after that. I hope she got insurance and/or help from Yale.</p>
<p>Smith has supplemental insurance ($110? $150?) to cover overnight stays at Student Health. An overnight stay is $200+ without it.</p>
<p>Thanks to all. I guess I'd better do some research.</p>