They need to know whether the parents’ plan will cover medical care at or near the campus, also, if the student is from out-of-state. Some plans are very restrictive, and might not include providers outside of a limited geographic area.
My daughter had a severe asthma attack at school and had to have ambulance transportIon to a hospital. The school had all her insurance information which was needed by the ambulance crew and ER. Much faster than searching a student room for an insurance card.
I imagine the reason they require proof that you are insured is that sometimes kids get sent to the emergency room by the college (unfortunately a common reason is too much to drink). The school doesn’t want to be on the hook for that cost if the family says “hey, we weren’t covered for that”. And as others have said, why do you think this has anything to do with the ACA?
Under the ACA, students are not allowed to use tax subsidies for college-provided health insurance. That might be a reason the college is asking for such detailed information.
The demand to know the premium seems strange, but the rest is not unheard of. We’ve had to provide deductible, out of pocket max, insurance policy numbers, etc. to waive the bill for campus insurance, and we had to answer questions about whether there are providers who accept our insurance in the area where D attends college.
The health center at S1 and S2s school scanned the insurance card which gives them most all of the info discussed here, minus the premium. Same thing I would do at any doctors office, so it’s really no big deal to me. If they had asked for the premium, I would have said $0. Which is technically true with a family of 5, it puts me in the “3 or more” pricing with my employer and could consider S1 and S2 to be the 4th and 5th person at “no extra charge”
I certainly needed to provide proof of coverage for my sons’ boarding school, beginning in Fall of '08, and when S1 started college in '12, before the ACA took effect. Every residential situation I’ve encountered has demanded it. S1 is a commuter, now, and so we have not had to furnish proof of coverage for him.
When S1 was at UChicago, we had to answer questions on a checklist about coverage levels provided for various things, but not the premium. Would be difficult to discern from premium amounts whether a parent has excellent coverage or not, since employer decisions about how much they pay vs. employee (and demographics for one’s family coverages under ACA plans) can vary hugely.
That said, when we applied for FA, we told them about my extremely high medical expenses in the hope of getting some sort of accommodation. At that point, they had our W-2s, which would have included the employer paid premium and a reasonably good estimate of employee premium (which was pretax, but was the sum of medical + dental + vision, as applicable).
At S’s school (he’s starting as a Freshman in the fall), they sent out correspondence saying that in accordance with the ACA, he needs to have insurance either through them, or on our own. So @donnaleighg it would appear to be as a direct result of the ACA…
I recall being asked to provide verification of coverage, but I don’t recall having to provide my annual premium (which of course is dependent on my employer’s largesse), deductible, or OOP max - and what would MY health care spending account be of concern?
However, this has nothing to do with Obamacare.
@Cameron121 they are simply informing you of the law; that everyone needs insurance now or there’s a penalty. As far as I know, nearly every college has ALWAYS (my experience goes back 5 years) required kids to show proof of insurance. I doubt Chicago has just instituted this requirement.
(fyi, I wasn’t positing Obamacare/ACA as a problem- just noting it in case it was just that rules had changed since the last time we enrolled a kid in college!).
As many posters have commented, fair enough that they want proof of insurance- that’s been true for as long as I can remember. It was the level of detail that was required, and the relevance of things such as the premium paid.
Chicago was asking for proof of comparable coverage in 2008 that we know of on a first-hand basis. Also had to disclose coverage (with levels) to Tufts – they used a service through their student insurance plan who collected this info – that dates back to 2010.
My son filled out his SUNY form a few days ago. They asked if he had insurance, the name of the carrier, & the policy #. As soon as he filled in that info., the cost of the school’s insurance was removed from his bill.
We’ve always had to provide proof that the child WAS covered under our policy, lifetime maximum, deductible, and out-of-pocket max. The lifetime maximum had to be high enough and deductible low enough. We never had to provide any premium or co-pay information. Our policy greatly exceeded the one they offered and we filed our paperwork early so we always were able to opt out, except the year our S was aging out of our policy so we bought theirs.
The policy our kids’ U offered was decent, but our policy allowed them to get coverage in our state for both kids to see the docs they had been seeing for years. It also allowed them to go to any provider (better when participating & preferred) and have some coverage, without any referrals. We were happy not to pay premiums for them to have EXTRA health insurance.
The premium is none of their business, so I would say that and decline to provide it. HSA/HRA is also none of their business.
Wow, seems like way too much information to me. Georgia Tech only requires mandatory insurance for select graduate students and also for undergraduates with visa’s. The rest of the students don’t even have to show proof of insurance…I doubt University of Chicago is doing this because of kids potentially needing an ambulance… sounds more likely they are either trying to use the information for other purposes or to make money selling insurance.
I understand a college asking for a copy of an insurance card, we have been doing that since the kids went to kindergarten. But IMO the rest of it is none of their business.
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…
^When DS went to orientation they told all of us parents that more than once than IF our kid had to go by ambulance to the hospital the fee was very expensive… I think it was over $1600 to Grady…and that if we didn’t have insurance for our student it would be wise to buy student insurance because WE would be the ones footing the bill not the college. We were told the student health fee only really covered colds and other minor stuff. I cant imagine why any parent would think that a small college health fee would cover anything more. If it did the price would have to go way up.
Yes, the nearest Kaiser facility is around 40 miles away from UCSB.
"Don’t fill out anything you don’t want… " wasn’t a choice. If we didn’t tell them the amount we put in our HSA each year and the amount of the insurance premium we pay, they will bill us, and D3 cannot participate in anything until it is paid.
I completely get being clear about insurance coverage- but how much we pay each month tells them nothing relevant.