My daughter will be starting her Master’s at UW next month. We live in New England, and our health insurance only covers Emergency Room services out-of-state. Her current plan is from the Obamacare exchange, because my husband has retired and coverage for dependents is prohibitively expensive on the plan we get via his former employer.
At this point, we’re not 100% sure that she will be changing residency from our New England state to Washington, since she doesn’t know what her plans will be 21 months in the future when she has earned her Master’s, and might land back here again. Thus I don’t believe that she’ll qualify for Washington Medicaid, since she’s not a resident. And UW doesn’t have an insurance buy-in for graduate students. So I guess we’ll be looking on the Washington exchanges for insurance for her.
What have others done and what would you recommend (or not recommend if you learned anything the hard way)?
Is there some state benefit she’s getting that she shouldn’t change her residency to Washington for two years then change it back if she wants to move back closer to her original state? Otherwise, take the cheap health insurance!
Article on health insurance in Washington from today’s paper:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/with-more-locally-grown-health-insurers-washington-sees-moderate-rate-increases/
There’s no reason for her not to change her residency except for sentimental reasons , and her father seems to have the most reservations about it. I’m all for it, but I’m outvoted at this point.
As an out-of-state student who ran into similar problems, I would suggests applying for Washington Medicaid regardless. I was worried I would not qualify since I’m not yet considered a resident, but I did.
[quote[There’s no reason for her not to change her residency except for sentimental reasons [quote]
How much is that worth to you? $1000? $2000? For about $50 she can change her driver’s license, register to vote, and qualify for free medicaid. Be thankful that Washington is a medicaid expansion state.
If she qualifies for medicaid because of income, it is unlikely she’d qualify for a subsidy off the exchange. Her only other choice in Washington may be full pay for a policy.