Regarding health insurance, you should be able to find the options and requirements on the school website by searching “health insurance.” For example, here is CU-Boulder’s: http://www.colorado.edu/health/insurance/select-or-waive-coverage
They have a choice of the comprehensive “gold” plan which is $1,800 per semester (!), a supplemental plan ($175) which covers using the campus health center for minor issues, or no insurance plan. Students have to show proof of insurance if they don’t want to be automatically signed up for the gold plan. We are on a PPO and oldest D has always gotten the waiver just by showing her insurance card.
@itsgettingreal17 Around here you don’t hear “UHC” and “excellent” in the same sentence often. Usually it’s “@&$*^#%” and “UHC”. =))
Is that all you think it takes? Having a PPO? I thought some schools it was tough to convince. Hope you’re right.
@ilikesporks – I agree that the rules vary by school.
@STEM201–and to keep the college application season moving, the extensions have started.
Son just received one from Chicago and a friend received one from Yale. For all I know, those ‘after-the-deadline’ applications may just go straight to the recycling bin, but help pad the stats.
@ilikesporks I’ve had 4 UHC plans, and my current plan is the best yet by a wide margin. I have little doubt it’ll be sufficient.
Another application submitted tonight! That’s 18 of 19 done (plus an honors college application remaining).
He just said he’s telling juniors that they should start early like he didn’t.
@Engineering713 - My Son also plays the Clarinet. In fact, there are 16 clarinets at my house doing their secret santa!
So being under the parents health plan until 26 means nothing at colleges and you are required to purchase their insurance, too?
Thanks @WhereIsMyKindle and @snoozn. Very helpful information re: Health Insurance. Hopefully I am budgeting too much, and D can use the $ on swag!
@Building The issue with the health insurance (I guess, I’m no expert) is that your K must be able to access plan benefits while at school, and the coverage must be comparable and have acceptable limits as compared to the school policy. So, for example, an HMO would probably not work at an OOS school. And, I’m not sure if the kid can come off the parents’ policy, because they need coverage when they’re home over breaks. Not sure how all that works.
@Building --not necessarily. Given that so many people are now covered by narrow-gated networks, schools want to ensure that the student will have reasonable coverage in the college service area. Some PPOs have huge out-of-network deductibles so a student covered by a CT-based plan may have to face a $15K deductible for care delivered in CA.
I mentioned upthread that my son’s school ‘approved’ our plan that had a $7000 family deductible.
@BigMACLovin – I can explain how it works at older son’s school. Unlike car insurance, the student remains on the college-provided medical insurance, if it is determined that he cannot be adequately covered by your home coverage.
Now, if you have employer-provided coverage with a family rate, you will probably leave the student on your family plan as there probably is not a premium differential, but if there is, and you can save money by removing the student from the employer coverage, the student will be covered by the school coverage from Aug through July (typically).
To complicate matters further, son’s college coverage has three levels of benefits: in-area (local to school) participating provider, out-of-area (home & everywhere else) participating provider, and non-par provider anywhere. VERY attractive plan design and rates compared to individual market or any employer plan I have had for past six or seven years.
If the college ‘approves’ your existing employer coverage as adequate, you may be free and clear OR the school may impose a fee to every student for any care they access on campus. I have been VERY happy with the care my son has received on campus this year, and I never would have expected that.
Happy to try to answer any other questions on this as I have drilled down a bit on the topic recently.
p.s. For car insurance, also varies by carrier, but our carrier massively reduces the rates when the student is 100 miles+ away from home and does not bring car to school. Student is home for 21-22 weeks/year and insured all year, but the rates are so much lower than having the teen driver at home.
We have a high-deductible+HSA plan, but it’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield, so the network is more or less national—I’d hope that would suffice most places, but everybody’s got to get their pound of flesh, I suppose…
The other important factor is that most schools make you prove your insurance each year to get the waiver and there is a date this has to be done by or you are stuck buying the school policy even if you don’t need it. I put the date on my calendar for all 4 years for my older son because it’s not the kind of thing he would realize and I would be stuck paying.
@acdchai — yes, indeed! And since our plan design seems to change each year, I always wonder if the university will approve the new plan. So far, so good.
The only unofficial drop at this time would be UPitt since DD got into her SCEA school and Pitt’s merit scholarship level has reduced from last year.
what is Big MAC?
@KaffeineKitty - MAC = Merit Aid College. Big refers, of course, to the amount of merit aid given. The bigger, the better!
I have heard many marching bands pay a stipend. But it doesn’t go very far. 
S17 talked to the music department about the marching band at UofO when we visited. It’s one of the reasons he likes the school. But playing in a marching band was really interesting & important last spring but he is finding isn’t so interesting this year. My guess is other interests will be more important when it’s time to make a decision. He has zero interest in football.
So far we’ve been approved for insurance waivers at both older kids schools and I assume the same will continue to hold true (large national PPO with self referral, do not have to go there a primary care provider first and low relative deductible) but you know what they say about assuming. …
Yet another thing to add to the list.
Ugh, health insurance. We have the high deductible + HSA Anthem Blue Cross plan which switched from a PPO to EPO this year (current litigation over that change). I’m not sure what their out of state coverage would be. It’s a terrible plan with high premiums/low coverage, but it is all we can get now as private pay customers. I’m not looking forward to having to pay even more for additional coverage for D’17, but I can understand colleges wanting to be sure students can get health care. Having insurance and being able to access health care are not necessarily synonymous given the very high deductibles.
Now that many outside scholarship apps have been released, D’s list has really shrunk, as many that don’t mention need in the scholarship books/websites actually do consider financial need. We’re down to 8 possibilities at the moment and that may shrink further.