All universities require students to have medical insurance. If your family insurance will cover your Aggie while at UC Davis, you can waive the UC Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP) and save approximately $2700/yr.
The UC SHIP waiver for 2022-23 will be available on May 15. It needs to be completed at the beginning of every school year.
Many Kaiser Permanente patients waive UC SHIP. Kaiser has a satellite clinic in town but they don’t have weekend services or urgent care. A Kaiser medical center with urgent care is located in Vacaville.
I’m thinking we will submit the waiver to opt out of UC SHIP because we have pretty good private (PPO) insurance. Is there any reason not to do that? If we keep UC SHIP, it will be considered secondary. Does anyone keep both?
We always waived it. It really depends on your insurance and how often your student sees a doctor. We are in So Cal and never established a primary doctor in Davis. We scheduled routine visits (physicals, dental, optometry, dermatology, etc.) over breaks. If anything was needed while at Davis, my student would do a phone consult with their primary in So Cal and have a prescription (if needed) called into a pharmacy in Davis. There is a Rite Aid across the street from campus, next to Trader Joes.
COVID testing and vaccines are free to all students.
If you waive UC SHIP, your student can still utilize student health but will need to pay a small fee. They used to post the fees on the website but I can’t find it at the moment. They may re-post them before the May 15 waiver deadline.
Our son is also deciding between UC-Davis (OOS) and UMD (in-state). We visited Davis (and of course, UMD) and he really wants to go to Davis now but I am concerned about such low OOS numbers and the impact on social life and if he will feel strange there. Any East Coast parents with kids at Davis?
California is much bigger than Maryland. My kid (Maryland born) is in state but our home is 500 miles away, an 8 hour drive. There will be many Southern California kids who will feel also a little strange in Northern California and unable to come home for the weekend.
I’m not sure why he would feel strange. It is a new experience for everyone. UC Davis is a very welcoming school and, once students arrive, I don’t think anyone pays attention to where each others’ parents live.
Just like anyone else who is going to school on the opposite coast, you will have to figure out what to do over Thanksgiving holiday (Thurs-Sun). It is very quiet as most students go home but it might not be worth a costly cross country flight. Some students stay in town and study as finals are a couple weeks later. Others spend Thanksgiving with friends whose families are welcoming and open their homes.
Thanks for reassurance! He is definitely looking for new experiences and a new environment and that’s why UMD is not as attractive to him (of course, it is $40k less a year and half an hour away ).
$160K difference is significant between both schools. If affordability is not an issue and you do not have to take out loans to send him to UCD, then I agree with @lkg4answers that college will be a new experience wherever he attends. My son is a UCD grad and he had a couple OOS friends, one from NJ and one from Colorado. He also had several International friends and roommates which included Korea, China and Australia.
My daughter just committed to Davis today. We are from Pennsylvania. I was a little concerned with her not being from California, but she doesn’t even seem to be thinking about it so that puts me at ease.
).