There are lots of parents who assume that anything not covered by their own private insurance for their kids gets covered by the college. Lots. I know kids who’ve had orthopedic surgery for god’s sake for an athletic injury and the parents are indignant that the $50 “health clinic fee” they paid doesn’t cover months of PT or non-covered medical bills.
Kids end up in community ER’s all the time and parents discover that their own insurance is inadequate. Kids end up needing referrals to specialists in the community and parents discover that those visits aren’t covered (proper referring procedure wasn’t followed).
I think it’s great that Chicago (and they are not alone) are alerting parents to the fact that if they are not buying a supplemental policy from the college, they are on the hook for anything not covered by their own primary policy.
I know a kid who took an ambulance for a half mile ride from his college dorm to an ER. He had something trivial which the Nurse Practitioner at the local CVS (or his own college healthy clinic) could have handled. Insurance kicked back the $700 cost of the ambulance ride to the parents and they are LIVID. Seems to me that anything that triggers a conversation between parents and kids about health costs and payments is a good thing.
Don’t fill out anything you don’t want… but don’t let your kids go to college thinking that health care is free just because they’ve never seen a doctor’s bill or paid more than $5 for a prescription.
And my first went off to college in 2002 and we had to provide everything Chicago is asking for… back in 2002. The “waiver” for insurance was more than just checking off a box which says “Waiver” which I think is prudent on the part of the college. Too many people trying to game the system…