<p>Thought I would post here instead of study abroad, as I am really looking for experiences from other parents. Has anyone else run into issues getting a letter confirming insurance coverage from their health insurance company when their kid is studying abroad? My D is going to study at a European university next fall and is not going through a college program (none to her country of choice, and her college has agreed to accept her credits).</p>
<p>The country she is going to requires her to get a student residence permit, since she will be there for more than 3 months. Part of the residence permit application is proof of health insurance. They want to know basically what is covered, the length of the coverage, any cap, etc. Our health insurance company (who we have been with for 10 years through ex-H's employment) is being a major pain about providing this letter. I have now made 7 different phone calls, and am currently working my way up through the supervisor level trying to get an appropriate letter or document from them. After 5 calls, I finally got a letter that was mostly about what they WON'T cover -- very CYA, all in legalese, and it doesn't include the specific details that the country's consulate asks for.</p>
<p>Then I figured out that it doesn't even have the correct coverage info in it -- when she goes abroad, we are to notify them, and they will move her to an "out of area" category in the plan with different coverages than normal. No issue there, except they won't produce a letter describing the out of area coverage until she is actually in that category. Which we don't want to do until she is ready to leave the country... which she can't do without this residence permit... which she can't get without the letter. Argh!</p>
<p>Hi! I realize this is late in the game for you, but i think health insurance is 100% necessary or you may want to re-think your plans. In our case, we have to produce proof from my son’s university that he is a full time student to be on our health insurance. Plus, the university abroad has a student policy which provides some coverage. I think you should find a study abroad program which will provide health insurance for your child. Your child must be covered with health insurance.</p>
<p>Oh, we have health insurance coverage. D’s dad works for the state, has for 30 years, we have pretty good insurance by today’s standards. And there is even fair coverage for when she is overseas. We are just having a heck of a time getting the insurance company to issue the appropriate letter SAYING she has the coverage.</p>
<p>My S is overseas on a 3 month study abroad this summer. We purchased a student health insurance plan. Allegedly, our insurance would cover some things, but hearing about other people’s experience with coordinating coverage, we opted to add an international student health plan through a company called Atlas International. They offer things like medical evacuation in addition to hospital coverage. A friend broke her leg on a trip to Egypt and dealt with a nightmare in getting her insurance to cover the surgery and trip back home to the states - she told me about these plans.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip. I will definitely keep it in mind if her permit request is denied because they think her insurance is in adequate. FYI, I just got a call from a supervisor at the insurance company, and they said they will be sending a letter that does contain the appropriate information. Whew. And it only took eight phone calls :)</p>
<p>I still might consider buying some supplemental insurance for medical evacuation and the like, but I just need to get this darned residence permit application in this week.</p>
<p>Do you have an ID card from your health insurance that you show providers for proof of coverage when you go for doctor visits? Can you zerox the card, front and back, and use that as proof of health insurance in lieu of a letter? Perhaps your husband’s company has something else to show coverage on employee benefits?</p>
<p>Also, I agree with the excellent advice to purchase international health insurance for students at the college where your child will attend. I am surprised they would not offer it and it does not matter if going through your U.S. university study abroad office.</p>
<p>Hope you get it straightened out soon. I am stressing trying to get all the paperwork together for our D’s visa application. The country wants financial information from us to prove that we won’t leave her stranded homeless over there! She is going through a sponsoring organization that provides insurance coverage, but I had to get a health statement notarized that she is free of communicable diseases. It is difficult to coordinate because she is not home for the summer.</p>
<p>Okay, I don’t feel so bad, at least we don’t need documentation of no communicable diseases! The letter came on the fax from the insurance company, along with a separate certificate verifying her coverage dates. It looks like it has most of the info it needs… although we only have 70% coverage up to the “allowable amount” when abroad. So we will see if the consulate thinks that is adequate coverage!</p>
<p>mdcissp, the card really wouldn’t have done much good. It has her name on it, but no dates at all (I am never sure if I am even looking at this year’s card :)). And no info on coverage outside her primary care clinic, etc. But fortunately I found ONE helpful person at the insurance company who was persistent today and got it done.</p>
<p>My daughter has done two sessions of study abroad and has taken four shorter 1-2 week trips abroad as well and we always buy a supplemental travel policy with medical evacuation. The wisdom of this practice was driven home last semester when my neighbor’s daughter had a horrible experience with the British national health care system. Apparently socialized medicine is great, until you’re really sick, and then not so much. My greatest fear is that she would be sick or injured and stuck in a foreign country with no one to advocate on her behalf. The med-evac policies are not that expensive and provide a great deal of peace of mind.</p>
<p>Not sure about the British system, but the whole point of this exercise is that they DON’T want D to come over and take advantage of their socialized health system. Wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t get full services/top priority/etc. I wouldn’t necessarily expect her to, since she is not a taxpayer into their system. And someone in the US with no one to advocate for them would likely have a terrible experience in our system as well! Potentially much worse that D would have in the country she is going to, since essentially that country is requiring everyone to have health insurance (either their national system or some external insurance). No one coming here has historically needed that, so you can really get in trouble here and have no care at all. I really have no complaint about the requirement she have insurance, just about the insurance company’s bureaucratic snafus :)</p>
<p>Sorry. The first line of your original post said that you are interested in the experiences of other parents. Neither my daughter nor my neighbor’s daughter were trying to leech off of the European health systems. Both had their parents’ full insurance PLUS supplemental policies. The problem was with the quality of care. That’s why I would never let my children go overseas without a medical evacuation policy. Just my opinion, but you did ask.</p>
<p>intparent: “And someone in the US with no one to advocate for them would likely have a terrible experience in our system as well! Potentially much worse that D would have in the country she is going to, since essentially that country is requiring everyone to have health insurance (either their national system or some external insurance). No one coming here has historically needed that, so you can really get in trouble here and have no care at all.”</p>
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<p>You’re kidding, right?:</p>
<p>“The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)[1] is a U.S. Act of Congress passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). It requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions. As a result of the act, patients needing emergency treatment can be discharged only under their own informed consent or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment.
EMTALA applies to “participating hospitals”, i.e., those that accept payment from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Medicare program. However, in practical terms, EMTALA applies to virtually all hospitals in the U.S., with the exception of the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Indian Health Service hospitals, and Veterans Affairs hospitals.”</p>
<p>I’ve always just purchased a travel insurance policy for my d. during her many trips abroad. I like IMG (International Medical Group) – which you can get imglobal.com or insuremytrip.com – you’ll get the proof of insurance pretty quickly after you purchase. Everything can be done online.</p>
<p>Hi all,
Been a long time since I dropped in, but I’m truly perplexed by required medical insurance and study abroad. I’m so glad you guys were here with information.</p>
<p>Looks like phone calls will be required, still, to get my questions answered fully. Just frustrated with why this info. is made so difficult to find: Seems as if the insurance co.'s want to obfuscate in order to make one just throw money at them in order to be sure.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve learned from my DD’s situation:
Medevac is covered in the cost of the study abroad program along with tuition etc. I will have to call to find out exactly <em>how much</em> is covered and whether I’m comfortable with that amount.
Coverage abroad must be purchased on site, at a <em>minimum</em> cost of $6 or so. I don’t know what that <em>minimum</em> means and we might not know until she gets there.
Coverage from the new default required insurance program (really cheap and a better deal than we can get on the open market) for the college will not cover her while she’s abroad, I think.
However, she needs to have that default through school coverage immediately upon her return, or for any emergency situation if she had to return early. Will have to call to find out how/whether we’ll have to pay for the months when it’s not covering her, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Or perhaps we pay on the open market for a backup plan, including supplemental medevac.
It’s a maze out there. Ridiculous. I see at least three phone calls in my future.</p>