<p>My health insurance only covers Ohio-area offices, so I know Vandy won't approve it. Does my financial aid cover it since it's technically an increase of COA? </p>
<p>That’s a good question. Grant $$ can certainly be used to pay for insurance, but my thought is no, your financial aid will not increase to cover the extra cost.</p>
<p>Imagine another family with identical finances (so identical grant $$) but with approved health insurance. Say Vandy covers yours. You get Vandy’s health insurance at no cost. This wouldn’t be fair to this other family, who has to pay the same EFC in addition to their own health insurance costs. They might as well kick their kid off their health plan and pick up Vandy’s for free. </p>
<p>You should email the FA office and post back with their answer-- I am curious.</p>
<p>Vandy’s meal plan may be an analog to this issue. The “default” meal plan is included in your cost of attendance (21 meals/week for Freshman, 14 for sophomores, 8 for juniors, 0 for seniors). If you choose to upgrade your meal plan, you must pay the additional bill yourself. Though your cost of attendance is increasing, you are choosing to eat more on Vandy’s meal plan rather than buy food on your own as expected, so Vandy charges you for it.
^^At least, I think that’s how it works. If not I need to upgrade my meal plan ASAP!</p>
<p>Thank you! I’ll call FA office tomorrow</p>
<p>From what I understand, the Vandy Health Insurance is included in the “Personal/Misc Allowance” item contained in the COA. So receiving a waiver would reduce the COA.</p>
<p>I’m most interested in seeing what the resolution is. I’m looking for new information on this topic. I hope girlincross posts it. My S is waitlisted at Vandy however he would face the same thing if he were admitted to Vandy as he is dealing with the same issue at the college he is currently enrolled in for this fall. He is an out of state student and has insurance that only covers within his home state. Based on my research (with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the college’s own health service) I’ve learned a few things: 1. The student activity fee covers sick visits to the student health service but will not cover anything further (meaning you will need your own insurance to cover lab work, xrays, or any other health care beyond the scope of a visit to student health services), 2. My S can pay for the university health plan to provide his own insurance, 3. My S can get his own private insurance, from BCBS for example, he just has to make sure that the doctors and hospitals in the area of the university are in-network for the plan, 4. If he works while at college in the fall, e.g., work study, then as a person who works part-time he would be eligible to apply for insurance under the affordable care act when enrollment opens again in December and it would likely be cheaper for him than purchasing his own insurance. Navigating these issues has become more complex due to the Affordable Care Act. I’m assuming that much if not all that I’ve written here would apply to Vandy as well as my S’s currently enrolled college.</p>
<p>VU health insurance is included in the cost of attendance. The charge would be waived if you have adequate coverage from a personal/employer plan so that would reduce your COA. I found this info from the University:</p>
<p>Policy on Health Insurance
Vanderbilt requires all students to have health insurance, either through a parent or another plan. The annual cost of the Vanderbilt Student Health Insurance Plan will be included in the fall semester charges unless the student submits evidence of adequate coverage under another policy. An allowance for health insurance is included in the Personal category of the Cost of Attendance.</p>
<p>I also found this page which sort of indicates the opposite! This page says, “Students should also allow for travel expenses and health insurance (if purchased through Vanderbilt).” Confusing!
<a href=“Costs: On-Campus or Off-Campus | Office of Financial Aid | Vanderbilt University”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/costs.php</a></p>
<p>It is confusing. But what I think they mean is that Vandy students are required to have insurance but if you show them that you’re covered then they won’t add it to the Personal expenses part of COA (thus not raising your estimated COA). The college my S will be attending this fall does something similar. You can fill out a form showing that you don’t have health insurance and that you want to buy the university health plan but don’t have sufficient funds. They’ll then add it to the COA but they will add the amount in unsubsidized loans to pay for it. Even if you’re a low income kid, they will only give you an unsubsidized loan, they will not increase grant aid from the school.</p>
<p>Called FA and they said that Health Insurance is included in personal expenses </p>
<p>I figured it was included … Vandy’s personal expenses at $2,730 was rather high. And then there was the transportation figure at $934 … On the low side if an airplane is involved! Does the transportation figure vary based on where you live? My drive will take approximately 11 hours. The drive up at the beginning of the year will take a good chunk out of the Vandy transportation annual budget. What is the transportation budget for a student from CA or WA state?</p>
<p>And on that note, books and supplies costing $685 per semester? Can we even get very used books at that price? My D’s private high school textbooks cost me a heck of a lot more than that … And most of them were used. Wonder what the average Vandy parent pays for books … Might be worthy of a separate thread. </p>
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<p>Our SoCal son got $1800 for transportation. Roughly four round trips.</p>
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<p>I am hoping that this will be a reasonable budget if our son rents most of his textbooks. This year for a dual enrollment community college calculus class, he paid a $25 rental fee to Amazon for a textbook that sells for $250. Assuming that similar deals are available on most of his textbooks, $685 may actually over-estimate his textbook costs.</p>
<p>Thanks SoCalDad2 … May have to look into Amazon rentals for books my D has no plan on keeping. Good going on that calc book!</p>
<p>If the book was more than $100 and would only be used for a semester, S rented from Amazon. If the book would be used for more than one semester (Chemistry), S bought the book. I just finished selling the Chemistry book back to Amazon. We paid $150 for the book and sold it back for $122. We just sold several books back and received credit from Amazon. I’m hoping it covers most of the cost for Fall semester.</p>
<p>And if you don’t have Amazon Prime, consider it for the 2 day shipping. We used it all year to send things to S.</p>
<p>My son once sold back a book he had actually rented. Then he got a bill for the not returned rental - whoops! Bookstore was nice about it and they sorted it out.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that, in order to qualify for VU’s student health insurance waiver, your family’s coverage has to be deemed comparable. And guess who gets to decide if it’s “comparable”? Not you! </p>
<p>VU will only grant a waiver request if your deductible is no more than $200 per person (that’s right - two hundred dollars - such a low deductible is virtually unheard of in today’s health insurance environment) AND your co-insurance is no more than 80/20.</p>
<p>Our family’s waiver request was recently denied because our per person deductible is $3500 (we have a health savings account containing more than enough cash to cover any deductibles), and our co-insurance is 70/30.</p>
<p>Perhaps the University’s position regarding student health insurance made more sense before the enactment of the ACA when there were families with no health insurance at all. I can see how VU would not have wanted any of their students walking around with zero coverage. But now that, by law, every family must purchase its own coverage (including all of the essential health benefits of the ACA and made more affordable by the federal and state health care exchanges), I think it may be time for VU to reevaluate their waiver criteria.</p>
<p>I submitted S’s waiver request today and it was approved. It is a company sponsored plan that meets the ACA. The deductible is $1000/person and $2000/family. Co-insurance is 80/20.</p>
<p>Based on my research (with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the college’s own health service) I’ve learned a few things: “1. The student activity fee covers sick visits to the student health service but will not cover anything further (meaning you will need your own insurance to cover lab work, xrays, or any other health care beyond the scope of a visit to student health services), 2. My S can pay for the university health plan to provide his own insurance, 3. My S can get his own private insurance, from BCBS for example, he just has to make sure that the doctors and hospitals in the area of the university are in-network for the plan, 4. If he works while at college in the fall, e.g., work study, then as a person who works part-time he would be eligible to apply for insurance under the affordable care act when enrollment opens again in December and it would likely be cheaper for him than purchasing his own insurance.”</p>
<p>This is not how it works, at least for #4. To qualify for a subsidy for a private health plan off the exchanges, the person has to earn between 100% and 150% of the poverty rate. Say that rate for a single is $20,000-30,000 (just an estimate). If you don’t earn that much, you can’t get a subsidy. In 26 states you’d qualify for the medicaid expansion, but in the states that didn’t expand medicaid, you can buy a private policy but you get no subsidy. If you make over the top amount, you pay the full premium with no tax break. Students working are not going to be making $20k+ to get the subsidy. You also have to be a resident of the state to qualify for medicaid. You also don’t have to wait until the open enrollment period if you have a change in circumstances, and moving to an area outside your insurance coverage is a change in circumstances (but I don’t think a college kid is going to qualify), so if you think he will qualify for a subsidy, he can apply immediately upon the change in circumstances (job loss, move, baby, death of primary insured, marriage…)</p>
<p>Check with your insurers for OOS trips and students. Many WILL cover all emergency medical care in other states or out-of-network. If you go on vacation in Maine and need to go to the ER, it’s covered even if you live in OH. If you need elective surgery or a check up, you have to wait until you go back to OH, to the doctors in your network.</p>
<p>My understanding is that Vanderbilt won’t waive coverage if your family insurance policy is an out-of-state plan that only offers emergency coverage while your child is in TN. I think most ACA plans fall into that category (offering full coverage only while you’re in-state and emergency coverage out of state). So many families who have ACA coverage that isn’t Tennessee-based are likely to find that Vandy will insist the student enroll in its plan.</p>