<p>Just wondering how others have handled this... or if everyone else but me saw the trap waiting to be sprung.</p>
<p>My kid just headed off to college this Fall. His college requires students to have health insurance, and in fact they provide it, unless you 'waive out'. But the plan they provide is better than mine at work, so in July I decided to switch my son over to theirs, and thus did not send the waiver. I heard nothing else from the college or their insurer, other than an email in August along the lines of "last chance... either waive out or be automatically enrolled in our insurance plan". I was sort of expecting some kind of positive confirmation that my son was enrolled, and must admit that at the time I did not fully appreciate the rigid time constraints of the insurance industry. Can you see where this is going?</p>
<p>In mid-September, an email from the college's insurer arrived with a "welcome to your health plan" message, and a link to my son's insurance ID card. This was the confirmation that I had been waiting for, that he was in fact accepted and insured, but when we clicked the link to the card... the Effective Date for coverage was August 1st... 45 days earlier!</p>
<p>The insurance industry nearly universally requires less-than-30-day notice after a "qualifying event" to change status, even to withdraw from a plan, so by mid-September, my employer's insurance would no longer take him off their plan. And for sure he's on the college's plan. So as a result, he'll have insurance from both my employer AND his college for the coming year, and we'll be spending a couple of thousand bucks for a service (my employer's insurance) that we don't want and won't use.</p>
<p>I've spoken at length to both the college and their insurer, and their position is that by not submitting the waiver, I should have assumed that my son was covered by their plan, as their emails stated. I should have withdrawn him from my plan at that point. If I needed proof of his "qualifying event", I could have pro-actively called or written them, and they would have been willing to provide a written statement. </p>
<p>My position, I guess (I'm still coming to terms with all of this), is that the college/insurer should have automatically confirmed the student's insured status once it took effect. I can't think of any other important transaction that I've been party to, that is not completed by a receipt announcing that payment has been made and accepted. And in the case of things like insurance, where denial-of-coverage nightmares abound, that the insured has been accepted for coverage.</p>
<p>I also feel that it wouldn't have killed the Dean's Office at the college, which manages the insurance relationship and <em>should</em> provide the warm-and-fuzzy interface to the insurance company, to have sent a clearer message to newbie parents of entering students. Something along the lines of "check with your existing insurance... after enrolling in our plan, you may only have 30 days to withdraw from yours". Hardly mandatory, but it would've been a nice touch and easy to do... something befitting of their Top-10 status among LACs in this country. </p>
<p>But mostly... I'm just annoyed to have walked into this trap. I didn't see it coming, and I've never seen anything about it on all of the dozens of "prepare your kid for college" checklists that I bombarded myself with last year. Has anyone else run into this issue? Or am I the last parent in North America to realize how fraught and tricky it is to deal with the insurance industry?</p>
<p>Hopefully, in addition to being educational for me, my experience can help others avoid a similar situation in the future. It is apparently assumed that you will be pro-active about getting proof of your kid's new insurance through their college. Don't wait for proof to arrive. The insurance industry measures their windows of opportunity to the minute.</p>
<p>Thanks for listening!</p>