As I plan for our D20 rising senior year and we measure financial matches, it’s come to my attention that Health Insurance matters. I’m federal on BCBS and she will be covered nationwide (assuming she uses facilities that are in-network). I’m hopeful this means that waivers will be possible using the school’s waiver process.
My question is, as I run the NPCs for each school and stay on top of expected costs, are the Tuition and Fees listed on the NPCs including Campus Health Insurance or is this extra? I’m hoping that it’s included and therefore I could back it out. It could make a few schools a little more affordable, if so.
You will need to check each college for what is included in their cost of attendance. In my experience, health insurance is NOT included.
We also had a BC/BS PPO plan with Blue Care…and it covered out kids nationwide. Check with your provider to be sure…and then check with each college to be sure this will qualify you for a waiver.
I’ve done a dozen NPC’s and none of them included health insurance as a part of tuition and fees. Health insurance provided by the college is optional. Your child’s college should send you a financial document where you simply check off the waiver box.
I agree that OP will probably find that the insurance cost is not included in the NPC, and that OP will be able to get a waiver with a BCBS PPO plan. But I would not make the broad statement that @TiggerDad made that “health insurance provided by the college is optional” and you “simply check off the waiver box.” My experience at Pomona College was definitely much more of a bureaucratic obstacle course.
At Pomona College you have until a certain deadline to opt OUT of the mandatory plan and prove that you have adequate coverage. Otherwise you are enrolled in the plan and billed for it. https://www.pomona.edu/ship. We have a high deductible HSA plan with a BCBS PPO. Every year we had to apply for the waiver, have the waiver denied due to the high deductible, and then appeal the denial. We always got the appeal granted but we had to jump through hoops every year. For one thing, the application for the waiver is handled by the plan administrator, not initially by the college. And the plan administrator issues an automatic denial for a waiver for a high deductible plan. Then we’d have to appeal to someone at Pomona to override the denial. https://4studenthealth.relationinsurance.com/plan/student-health-insurance-plan-ship-2018-2019-521/
I have run across colleges that include it automatically in the overall cost so while most don’t check each school individually once you narrowed down the list. I like it when it is included so that my cost goes down. We have to give the school the insurance info not just check off a box that says she doesn’t need it. She even needed to do that for dual enrollment in high school. We never had an issue - for both dual enrollment and current school the plan administrator sounds familiar.
We had to complete a very detailed questionnaire about OUR insurance coverage to get the waiver. We did it…and the waiver was granted for both of our kids…two different colleges, two different states.
I will say, ours was pre-ACA, and some things have changed in terms of coverage so check your policy carefully. But a BC/BS PPO with Blues very well could meet the requirement.
Our colleges did not include health insurance in the cost of attendance…but they DID include it in the bill. That’s when the waiver was done. Make sure you check for deadlines for submitting the waiver requests…and adhere to them.
Ok so this sparks more questions. Besides possible omission of the pricey health insurance in the NPC calculations, what other expenses should we plan for? What’s missing from the school’s estimates?
When we say, for example, that we can afford $XXk/year for your college how is that practically applied? Tuition? Books? Travel back and forth to home? Decorating the dorm room? We are stretching to say ok we’ll try to pay $30k/yr. it’s not as high as EFC but it’s best we can promise for 2 kids getting close now.
But when she wants to go to Columbia, which is over our budget let’s say by $7k should we add $3k or $7k to be more realistic since there are hidden costs not represented by the NPC?
If so, then maybe she shouldn’t apply there at all since it’s not financially feasible. Idk. I am trying to help her and avoid the high of acceptance followed by the low of financial disappointment. (Columbia is just an example. I know all the odds against it.)
I just don’t want to stretch to a seemingly ok “extra” when reality it’s more likely too expensive.
Tuition, fees, room, board and an allowance for personal expenses (usually includes books and personal expenses) and sometimes travel is included in most cost of attendance.
BUT…it’s a generic estimate for books, travel, personal expenses. For example, if you live across the country and plan to fly your kid home for every break, you may find that the travel allowance doesn’t meet that amount. One of our kids was an engineering major…and the book allowance didn’t meet her needs until she figured out how to order online.
Room decor…no…that is not included in the cost of attendance. Have your kid shop in your linen closet and her room at home first.
If the school is in a different climate than your home, no allowance is included for new clothes either.
In terms of personal expenses…this is the time for students to learn to live within their means. It’s also a good time to get a 10 hour a week part time job while IN college to help pay for discretionary spending.
Room decor? Our kid got some gift cards to Bed Bath and Beyond and Target, and used those for some room decor purchases. She also had some money saved. We pitched in a little for this too.
Other “extras”. Some colleges have fridges in each room. Or a microfridge. Some don’t. You need to check to see if this is something you will need to rent…or just don’t want. College financial aid doesn’t cover this cost either.
School supplies…computer, for example, some thumb drives, pens, paper or notebooks, an IPad, etc…those are usually on you and are not included in the cost of attendance.
The UCs include health insurance in the quoted COA, and UCSHIP can be covered by financial aid (it can also be waived but you have to submit evidence of other equivalent coverage that includes hospital facilities within a specified distance from campus). Most other colleges don’t appear to specify it as part of the COA.
Also note that the COA estimate for room and board may be more or less than the actual costs, depending on the selected dorm and number of roommates. So for example we’ve found actual costs at UCLA to be well below their headline $34677 instate COA for 2018-19 (http://www.ucla.edu/admission/affordability) because everyone has a triple and we didn’t need their health insurance or anything close to the estimated book allowance.
I consider The official COA for a school to be the maximum amount you can borrow through PLUS. It’s an average of sorts. Average certain typical room , typical meal plan. -average expenses. YMMV, if you have situations and lifestyles outside of those lines.
I know our travel expenses have been higher when I include visiting our college kid. Things like that do not make it in their. But if you and the student are frugal, you can “beat” those numbers. Especially if the student lives in cheap digs off campus, for example.
There are often two ‘health’ fees listed on the tuition bill. One is health insurance which you can waive or petition to waive. The other is for the clinics on campus and that cannot be waived. It can provide flu shots, preventative care and for one of my kids, strep and flu tests.
Pay attention to the fees as they can be large. One of my kids, at a private school, paid the same $375 per semester every one of her 8 semesters. Never increased (but tuition sure did). The fees were not broken out, but they were for the shuttle buses, for athletic events (all free with student ID), athletic facilities (gorgeous pool, work out facilities), computer labs (with 3D printing), etc.
At my other daughter’s public school, the fees were much higher, closer to $800 per semester. Included the health center, athletic tickets to everything (D1), all the rec and athletic facilities, Friday night activities (concerts, ice skating, hypnotist shows), computer labs, printing.
For both, almost everything was free once they were on campus.
When schools quote the COA, it usually includes tuition, fees, the average room and board, and an allowance for travel, books, incidentals. How close it is to your costs depends on how you kid lives. Mine lived the lives of students with minimal entertainment needs - a concert or two but no trips to Vegas or Ruth’s Chris.
We had to get a letter from our FEHB BCBS that met criteria set by the U and have it received and accepted by our kids’ each year for them to get a waiver from having to buy the U’s insurance. It was bureaucracy and not as simple as just checking a box but we were able to get it accomplished.
We only had to buy health insurance for our S for the one year he aged off our insurance when he turned 22. He never made a claim on the U’s policy but had to buy it so he could register for classes. We never had to buy U insurance for D because under ACA she was covered until she turned 26.