Parents... University Health Insurance vs. Family Insurance

<h2>Put this on Parent Board, but posting here too....</h2>

<p>I will have 2 kids in 2 different UC's (UC Santa Barbara and UCLA) come September. We have health insurance thru husband's work (HMO). I am wondering what other parents do under these circumstances. Do you opt out of University Health Insurance? If so, do you switch to a primary physician near school? I think it is required to opt out. What about when they come home for summer????
Help! Thanks!</p>

<p>We decided tp keep our primary insurance (through my husband’s office) and also get the UCLA plan (with United Healthcare). We are REALLY glad we did this as my daughter had to have her tonsils out over spring break here at home. One of our local hospitals accepted her school secondary insurance since they are part of the United Healthcare network. We have a really high deductable with our insurance so if we had just used Blue Cross it would have cost us about $8000. So combined with my husband’s Blue Cross plan and the school’s United healthcare secondary policy we got almost all of this very expensive procedure covered.</p>

<p>I think during the summer when she is home she just is covered by our primary plan. I am pretty sure the United Healthcare school plan is considered a secondary plan so you can keep her on your family’s plan.</p>