I am looking for a health insurance for an international student cheaper than offers Fordham Law School, with these criteria :
Maintain other insurance coverage that is equal to or greater than the Student Health Insurance Plan benefits and with no additional exclusions.
The insurance company must be headquartered and operating in the US, with a US claims address and customer service telephone number.
The plan must be ACA compliant (Affordable Care Act) the plan must provide inpatient hospitalization benefits in the New York City area including mental health benefits. The plan must provide outpatient benefits in the New York City area (including office visits, outpatient mental health visits, and laboratory and radiology procedures). Coverage for emergency only care does not satisfy the requirement.
The maximum benefit payable under the insurance plan must be unlimited.(no dollar limit)
The insurance plan must include coverage for medical evacuation of at least USD $50,000 per year; repatriation of remains of at least USD $25,000 per year; and a deductible not to exceed USD $500 per year.
I will appreciate any help about that. Thank you everybody¡¡¡
Health insurance in the US is very expensive! The best prices generally come through group policies, either through an employer or school. If you choose not to use the student insurance offered, you would need to find a broker and get a quote for a policy with benefits equal to those offered by Fordham and then make sure that medical providers in the area accept the plan. It can be time consuming. I’m not sure how much the plan that Fordham offers costs but the one at my D’s school is about $2,000 for the year and is less expensive than our existing plan.
Health insurance in the US is state by state, so you need a NY policy.
IMO, you aren’t going to find a policy with only a $500/yr deductible. That’s unusually even with an employer sponsored policy. Since the NY policies will be for NY residents, I’m not sure many will have clauses for medical evacuations (usually people buy travel insurance for that) or repatriation of remains.
Unlimited, uncapped benefits? May be available but you will pay a lot for that.
I don’t know of any plan that meets your criteria for less than $3700. Or even close to it. I pay significantly more than that and have a much higher deductible and lifetime limits.
The OP is quoting from Fordham’s rules for getting a waiver to not take their health plan (which is actually $3601). It is a very high bar indeed, and I imagine is designed that way.
Ahhh. In that case, Fordham should not muddy the waters with all those requirements and just say “you must purchase our plan”!
Sorry to make light, OP. I know it is time consuming and frustrating to address all the details required to study in the US. I wish someone had a less expensive option for you.
I have found some plans with only 500$/yr deductible, but Fordham don´t accept it. In fact, I have a european insurance (AXA) without deductible and unlimited, but they don´t accep it, because they are not american insurance. AXA is one of the most important insurance in the world but they don´t accept it. As DramaMama2021 say, is more easy to say “you must purchase our plan”.
Fordham is able to offer the group plan because they are giving an insurance company a group of usually healthy, majority 18-25 year old students. Claims are probably not that high overall and they can cover everything.
You will be searching for an individual policy, grouped in with a lot of unhealthy people who only want a $500 deductible but willing to pay a big premium because they expect to have high claims. Or, you can be in a group with other healthy people who are willing to have a huge deductible because they aren’t planning to have any claims, but want a low premium. Usually can’t find both low deductible and high coverage.
My brother has the worst of both worlds. He has a high premium (self employed) of about $700/mo, but a huge deductible of about $8000. No evacuation, no return of remains (he buys travel insurance for that). If he wants a lower deductible, it could cost $2000/mo.
One of the ways NY and MA are able to offer lower premiums and give coverage to all residents is that both states have a lot of college students, and the colleges very much restrict the policies they will accept for their students, so most of those very healthy students are buying the $3700 policies from the schools. There have been complaints from parents on here that Cornell is very strict on what they accept, even from other NY counties, or CT plans.
My friend’s son attends SUNY Buffalo and used his family’s Blue Cross policy from Colorado. It was all fine for the emergency of breaking his leg, but for all the follow up care? They were out of network and had to pay for all the physical therapy while he was at school. Blue Cross Colorado is not the same as Blue Cross NY.
Also, those NY and MA school policies are quite a bit more expense that policies offered by other schools in other states. For my daughter in Florida, I paid about $1500 per year. Going to school in NYC is going to cost you.