<p>So, I don't really think we are facing this, but I just need to ask. D is fairly unhappy at the moment. Probably just mid-semester blues and exhaustion, but she may be considering taking a leave of absence next semester. And it would be just for one semester. Not dropping out, just taking a leave. What would be the deal with health insurance? Our insurer contacted us at the beginning of the year to ensure that D was a full-time student. She is insured under our policy, not the school's, and I know the policy requires children to be full time students if they are over 19. I suppose I have to call the insurer, but I know lots of folks here have great experience.</p>
<p>Similar topic, this time hypothetical. What happens if a student takes a medical leave? Do insurers stop the insurance because the student can't be in school due to medical situations?</p>
<p>Things to look into regarding this: in some states (NJ for one) a child up to age 30 can be added (for additional $) even if non student; Cobra type continuation conversion for dependent (check with your employer); HIPAA requires pre existing coverage if no gap in insurance for 60 days or less - so you can buy an individual policy for the months that the student is out of school. This would work for a medical leave type thing as well. Of course the benefit of the student on your family policy is the lower cost, but they are generally not flexible with the rules.</p>
<p>I personally never considered these things when I was young. I spent the months after graduation and beginning a full time job without insurance; I never thought about what would happen if I got sick.</p>
<p>Not sure about the insurance but I do want to point out that it may just be a case of timing with your D. I am visiting DS on the opposite coast (the cold one!) this week. He has just finished a huge round of papers/projects prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Many students are just tired right now. Particularly those on the cold coast who are seeing winter reappear.</p>
<p>My S had a medical leave from school last year (1 year total- 2 college semesters) and we could cover him under our medical insurance. It was not a problem at all.</p>
<p>Another option is to see the minimum # of credits she must carry at in-state local U to buy insurance locally (if she wants to stop out briefly), if your policy won't cover her. Some places allow as few as 6 credits (2 courses) & sell insurance for a low price & she could take them in any field, pass/no pass or whatever. Insurance costs would be low because it would be a student group policy.</p>
<p>I think there are exemptions for medical leaves of absence from college, but not if she just wants to "take a break."</p>
<p>If it turns out to be expensive to keep her insured when she is not a student, it might be less expensive to have her take community college classes so she continues to be a student. Pass fail is fine, or she could take classes similar to classes she did well on during high school, or she could take vocational classes that sound like fun to her (cooking? computer repair?). </p>
<p>Another relatively inexpensive way to keep being a student is to register for online college courses through a state college in your home state or through Brigham Young University. (Learned that on CC :) )</p>
<p>Check with your HR dept. Generally adult children (over age 19) need to be enrolled full time to be eligible to be in your insurance.
She is entitiled to continued coverage through COBRA and then can be put back on your policy when she resumes school.
Check the cost of COBRA - mine costs $415/month for an individual for just medical coverage.
There may be cheaper policies depending on what state you live in - in PA Blue Cross uses sort of a sliding scale and you can get coverage if you already had "credible coverage".</p>
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Similar topic, this time hypothetical. What happens if a student takes a medical leave? Do insurers stop the insurance because the student can't be in school due to medical situations?
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<p>It depends on your employer. As JustAMomOf4 said, you should contact your HR department. Don't contact your insurer, because it may not be aware of your company's policy requirements.</p>
<p>We had to deal with this issue when our son took a medical leave of absence from his university. Although our medical insurer (Aetna) has a policy that full-time college students are covered for an entire school year if they are enrolled at the beginning of the year (even if they take a medical leave of absence), our employer has its own policy that any child who isn't a full-time college student--for any reason--will be dropped from coverage immediately. The company policy requirements differ from those of our insurer.</p>
<p>We decided on the COBRA option for our son. It was expensive, but it worked for us.</p>
<p>(And, yes, our company policy is the pits. If our child gets a life-threatening disease like cancer and has to take a medical withdrawal from school, our company will immediately remove him from our medical insurance policy.)</p>
<p>Medical leaves depend on state law in some cases.</p>
<p>I remember a case in NH a few years back when a young student had cancer and could not attend school. She was dropped from her parents coverage and I think that NH changed their law because of this.</p>
<p>Definitely check with your HR dept and/or the insurance rep for your HR Dept.</p>
<p>just wanted to add- Health Insurance providers pick up this info pretty quickly. D was having some medical problems at beginning of semester. (Thank goodness everything is ok now) but she did get some testing done at ER at local upstate hospital and had a bunch of medical appointments too. Blue Cross sends us a form requesting info if d is still full time student (I had updated the info with usual health service provider-non hospitalization part) but I guess once they see billings from hospitals or multiple doctor visits, they question whether full time student status is still in effect.</p>
<p>luckily everything is good and kid just missed a few days of classes- but health insurance companies will "pounce" on student status if they think they can get out of paying a claim.
I think my health insurance plan in NY will now pay for a 3 month extension if kid leaves school for any reason- but after that 3 month period, they are not covered under parents health insurance.</p>
<p>It's really weird because my insurance policy (I have read it cover to cover) does not say anything about full-time student status. Nonetheless, the insurer insists it's in the policy but can't point me to where it is. So far, my kids haven't ever taken any breaks or medical leave, but I'm sure insurer would be happy for any reason to discontinue coverage.</p>
<p>Son will age out from our policy the day he turns 22 anyway, sadly. He will have one more semester after that of college & will have to go with the school/student plan (which fortunately is good) or we will have to pay for Cobra until he gets a job that has health benefits. It's too scary for us not to have him covered. He does have pre-existing health conditions & getting them covered can be tough if insurance is ever stopped along the way.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for all this good advice. As I said, I don't think this will happen, but all of this is good to know. It's so UNFAIR, though, that if a kid gets really sick, just when the family would need the health insurance, it stops because s/he can't go to school. Well, DUH, of course s/he can't go to school. S/HE'S SICK!!! I just don't get it...</p>
<p>It's a cost-savings. Insurers want to collect premiums (preferably from young, healthy people who will rarely, if ever, make claims). They really don't want to have to pay claims & do what they can to "reduce their risks." They know folks have to have a minimum amount of health & stamina to be able to be a full-time student so having this clause helps them limit their obligations & cuts off those too sick to enroll full-time or maintain full-time status.</p>