<p>Students are only at the school for 4-5 years, and are from an overall healthy demographic—their medical needs are most likely going to be a handful of visits for colds & other viruses, birth control pills, and the occasional sprain. Real emergencies such as fractures go to the local hospital. Students who develop serious diseases while in school are likely only to see the health center doc for initial visit, then be referred either to home resources or a nearby specialist for testing/diagnosis/subsequent treatment. Univ health centers are not set up to treat the really expensive stuff. </p>
<p>If a school is buying into a health ins group plan for those of its students who are not covered by their parents’, it is still a policy that is not written in expectation of paying for many cancers, chronic heart diseases, complicated pregnancies, and other things that tend to happen to people over the years after age 25 - 30.</p>
<p>Our D went to Brown & all we had to do to opt out was provide documentation she was covered by her father’s employer’s plan.</p>
<p>Wait, wouldn’t the people who were unlucky enough to have outside coverage be the ones more likely to opt out, if possible? Why would their premiums go up because other college students are joining them in not using the college’s insurance plan?</p>
<p>Neither MIT nor Willamette University charges a “health center fee.” Both provide medical insurance for students, but both also allow students to opt out of this plan if they are covered under their families’ insurance plans. My son and daughter can go online and take care of the waiver process using the information on their health insurance cards.</p>
<p>We get an invitation to enroll in GWU’s health insurance plan every summer, but do not need to show any proof of other insurance to opt out. Our HMO only covers emergency care out of the region, but it’s cheaper to pay for a few doctor visits than $1300 for the year. My D had to use the student health center for a sore throat once, and I think the Dr visit and prescription came to $50 total.</p>
<p>My older D’s college requires insurance - either the plan offered through the school or with proof of other (equivalent) coverage. The health center fee is separate and the students can use it for the basics (including 15 counseling sessions) at no charge. Since we live only about 3 hours drive away, we opt out of the college plan and she takes care of most medical needs at home. We do joke that if she breaks a bone that she will have to find a stick to use as a splint until we can get down there & pick her up.</p>
<p>She did use the health center last spring for strep. Add’l testing was required at the local hospital & that ended up being ~$80. </p>
<p>Once #2D decides where to go for college we will re-evaluate whether or not to keep the PPO, which covers only local providers.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges require health insurance. Why they think this is any of their business is anyone’s guess. But that is life.</p>
<p>Usually the policies offered by the schools are expensive because they have low deductibles. This is the most expensive way to pay for health care. Some have limited annual coverage. The worst I saw was a plan limit of $50,000 in any year. Someone with major trauma in a car crash might burn through that much in the emergency department. Plus, the stupid policy cost more than a simple high deductible policy that paid everything (no copays) after the first $1,500 in a calendar year. </p>
<p>In the past there have been schools that say that they won’t accept a policy with a deductible higher than X. This is utter nonsense and should be argued, especially if one has a health savings account that is funded at 5 or 6 times X. </p>
<p>Student health services vary. In some situations it might be worth setting up a relationship with a local physician or clinic.</p>
<p>Massachusetts student health requirements, like all Massachusetts health insurance requirements, do a fine job of raising costs for everyone. Such a low deductible is absurd. The good news is that the state’s rules for comparable coverage are such that many out-of-state plans qualify, especially PPOs. People with limited local HMO network plans might have a problem. The rules as of June 1, 2009 are at <a href=“http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dhcfp/g/regs/114_6_3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dhcfp/g/regs/114_6_3.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn’t mean to nitpick like that; I’m just not an expert on insurance so I wasn’t sure if I was misreading something. Thanks for your patient clarification (no pun intended, ha ha!) </p>
<p>(Get it, because insurance pays for patients’ care…?)</p>
SOME colleges, such as Washington University in St Louis, have determined they can still require your child to carry THEIR health insurance program, even if you already have health insurance, and even if your health insurance package is BETTER than what the college offers! They do not offer an Opt-out program!</p>
<p>So now our son’s primary insurance is not as good, costs are redundant, and he has to deal with all sorts of annoying, unnecessary paperwork if he gets sick. He’s a really healthy kid, but those “small illnesses” aren’t why you carry insurance. You carry insurance in anticipation of those life-catastrophies that you hope he’d never face. Previously, he was simply a “dependent”. Now that he has his own insurance, we have to go by the college’s coverage first, and only then go after what he’d get as a dependent.</p>
<p>Fourier, thanks for the link. The deductibles are ridiculous. I have a state PPO. cover My PPO does cover emergency care outside the state. Student health is free of charge. I’m comfortable with the coverage. I just hope Massachusetts is.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure we pay a fee for our health center here oncampus, but then if you go in there for anything they charge you for it. Last year (and will in a few weeks) I had to get a TB test done. Cost me $15 for the shot and then another $10-15 to “see” the nurse who did it.</p>