<p>Do you buy insurance for your student? Our family insurance is not covering the state our D's in, so should I buy her a separate coverage? My premium didn't go down also, because they don't care if we have one less dependant, the family price is the same. College says the doctor visit are free but not the tests or lab work. thanks for your help.</p>
<p>We had to prove to our daughter's college that our insurance covered her or buy their policy. The coverage looked to be about the same as ours and the cost was $500 for a 12 month period. We opted out but I may buy their policy next year and drop her from ours.</p>
<p>If there is an illness or emergency, costs can add up quickly so to me having insurance is a must.</p>
<p>Family premiums are usually the same if you have 1 child or 10. Something I never thought was exactly fair, but then life is not fair.</p>
<p>Our son is covered under our insurance plan. Our insurance company does not seem to do business in the state he is in, but they use the "in network" doctors of another insurance company (no extra costs to us). It is still is a problem. I thought that my son was going to need a particular specialist. The closest one was over 25 miles from the school he attends, and he does not have a car. He did not need to see that specialist, but it would have been inconvenient. His other option would be to pay and see an out of network more local doctor, but our deductible for that is fairly high. In effect, we would be paying out of pocket if he chose that route.</p>
<p>S and D attended two different schools in two different states, neither one our home state. Both schools required insurance coverage. You either filled out an insurance waiver on-line documenting that you had insurance coverage or you were billed for it with the tuition. There wasn't any way around it. Each school's policy was geared to local good coverage.</p>
<p>Came in quite handy when DD had a severe antibiotic reaction at night when Health Services was closed. Add to that the fact that she was a month into her first semester at a school where freshmen can't have cars on campus, so there was no way for a friend to take her to the ER. She had to be taken to the ER by ambulance. Without insurance, it would have been about $1000 for her excellent adventure. With insurance it was $75 -- total.</p>
<p>To the OP, are you sure you have no coverage in your D's college state? Both of our kidlets go to school out of state. We have coverage in that state both in and out of network. Plus, we can get "guest coverage" for an additional state for each of them and that increases the in-network options.</p>
<p>Re: specialists...the student health service doesn't usually have access to specialists (unless perhaps you are at a huge teaching university). DD had an issue last year and we thought she was going to need to see an orthopedist (she didn't...but...). The nearest in network fellow from our plan was a distance away BUT so was the ortho that the health center was going to send her to. It wouldn't have mattered if we had the student insurance...the distance wasn't reduced.</p>
<p>Having said that...if the student health plan offered by your college is one that you feel good about, and it covers things you think you may need, the costs are very nominal. To be honest, it makes me wonder why health insurance for our college grads costs SO much when they can get it for $1500 per year or less through their school. Seems like an alumni association should be able to do this as well. It's not like there is a big age difference between 22 and 24. But that's another thread.</p>
<p>First make sure your current plan doesn't cover students out of state. Call and ask. Usually most plans have provisions for out of network coverage at a reduced rate, usually a deductible and lesser coinsurance. Secondly, I do not know of a single plan in America that does not treat emergency anywhere basically, in the world. Please review your plan booklet and call them for advice. </p>
<p>Routine healthcare should be scheduled when he is home. So really, your main concern is emergency situations. If after checking you find you need coverage, look into school plans or even short term medical (6-12 months) or local (to the state he's in school at) coverage. Make sure anything you buy is approved by that state AND the person selling it to you is licensed for that state (very important trust me). </p>
<p>You just need to do alittle footwork, compare price and policies and pencil out what you want to do.</p>
<p>"me wonder why health insurance for our college grads costs SO much when they can get it for $1500 per year or less through their school"</p>
<p>Read the policies, that will usually point out the differences. top sirlion costs 2.99 a pound, prime rib 7.99, both are meat..... why is there a difference? ;)</p>
<p>Even HMO's with only local networks have to provide coverage for out of the area care for emergencies, travel, etc. And most states mandate that provisions are made for students, for temporary job assignments etc that takes a covered member out of the area. I agree you need to check further with your insurance, and do not take the first answer that you get. While the out of state/out of network coverage may have higher deductibles and copays, most students 18-22 are healthy and require only urgent/emergency care at school, with routine visits scheduled for when they are home, etc. Look further into this, esp since your family coverage is the same price with or without D.</p>
<p>I decided to call the insurance again, and this time they said D's new state has participating providers. I don't know why they told me the opposite before. Anyways, thanks for the great advise, just making this call saved me a bunch of money I was about to pay for a separate coverage!</p>
<p>make sure that your daughter has a list of participating providers, hospitals and labs with her, with their phone numbers and addresses. They could be few and far between, and the consequences of going out of network are quite hefty.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, our S's schools required that we either prove he is covered on our policy or get the school's policy.</p>
<p>We have found keeping S on our policy to be preferable in one case; getting the school's policy preferable in the second case:</p>
<p>In that situation, the savings from dropping him from our policy was virtually equal to the cost of the school policy. But the school policy had substantially better coverage (we are self-employed, so good health coverage is a big issue). So we are buying the school policy. Before dropping him from ours, we did some research to check that he would have decent options post-college in the event (horrors ;)) that he doesn't have a job <em>with benefits</em> immediately post college.</p>
<p>I realize that this doesn't apply to the OP (no savings from dropping her D from the family policy), but it might be relevant for others reading this thread.</p>
<p>Any one found an excellent resource for some sort of student group plan?</p>
<p>Oour personal plan has a huge deductible, so it is basically all cash. One of my Ds will be attending a school with what amounts to an emergency travel type of plan offered students. It is a smaller LAC type school and I guess most kids much keep their parents coverage :( I'd live to find something more reasonable than the $175/mo individual plan offered by the Blues, but without a huge deductible. Esp when I see the excellent coverage another college D has at her school for $1200 a year.</p>
<p>Check if family plan provides for mental health coverage. School plans usually have this as a rider.</p>
<p>Our family plan covers son until he is 25 if he's a full-time student. All I did was call and say he was and they activated his coverage.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Even HMO's with only local networks have to provide coverage for out of the area care for emergencies, travel, etc.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Emergencies, yes, travel, not necessarily. </p>
<p>
[quote]
And most states mandate that provisions are made for students, for temporary job assignments etc that takes a covered member out of the area.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Negative.</p>
<p>Read policies carefully. You have to be careful about insurance plans coverage of full time students to age 25 or whatever age. The plan might also require kid to be dependent on parents federal tax form.</p>
<p>Honestly, if you're really not sure.. call the company and ask. If you are getting conflicting information, you need to call and speak with a manager or somebody who can clarify for you. I work for a health insurance company and I'm in the process of getting my licenses in other states and I can tell you guidelines and such do vary from here to there... so an answer on here may not be the same as in your state.</p>
<p>I just got my WV license in the mail today, I was so happy. :)</p>
<p>Been licensed going on 20 years. Health care has 50 different sets of rules (what a coincedence, the same as the number of states) and one set that superceeds the 50 (aka the feds). The best place to start if you aren't sure of your healthcare plan is with the plan it's self. Read the booklet, not just the summary. If you don't find an answer to your question or it isn't clear, call on it. Anytime you speak with an insurance carrier about claims or coverage get the name, date and time recorded for your records.</p>
<p>As we are self-employed with one child...this may or may not apply to you. We found it cheaper to have coverage for DH and myself, and DD separately, using the PPO program offered with Blue Cross. Her school's insurance was therefore not necessary.</p>
<p>Our company here in NY State has no participating providers way out in California. We called our local company. The cost of working with a non-participating doctor involved a $1000 deductible. At that point, it was better to accept the college's plan at $184 per semester.<br>
However, we have to keep him double-covered, because if he travels home for vacations or summers, the college plan won't be relevant here.
Just another unthought-of cost when sending students cross-country. Oh well. I hope I researched this properly. H also went onto the phones to verify.
With our older 2, we waived the college's insurance plan, but they only went to school 4 hours away, although in a different state.</p>
<p>Make sure you read about double coverage and which plan becomes primary and secondary. It too can vary based on state.</p>