<p>Trying to figure out the health insurance offerings at the different UCs. Why the difference in costs between UCs? Is student health insurance required or necessary? </p>
<p>Do parents ever just cover students under their own insurance, or typically just supplement their own insurance with the university health insurance?</p>
<p>I can’t explain the difference in costs, but students can be covered under parental insurance. Students are required to have some insurance though, so if the parents’ plan doesn’t cover them they have to have the school insurance plan.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the UC insurance, but we declined the insurance at my D’s LAC. It’s major medical only, and caps at $25,000 coverage. We kept her on our policy.</p>
<p>At D’s college, you can petition for a waiver if you are covered under your parent’s plan and the plan provides certain coverage. But there is a deadline by which you have to apply–sometime in the summer. So you need look at the UC website to check details.</p>
<p>You do apply for a waiver to stay on parents existing policy by showing proof of policy which outlines coverage. If you have Kaiser and it is more than 25 miles away you are required to purchase their policy. Same applies if you have any other restrictive policy, such as another type of HMO which specifies a network of Doctors that is not in the area the school is in. </p>
<p>Had to purchase the UC policy which covers clinic visits, local hospital visits and RX. Convenient, but when he went to emergency locally because the clinic was closed the policy found out he had additional insurance and would not pay for that ER visit, and either would our policy. That’s a racket, and the school policy cost 900.00 for 3 qtr. ER w/stitches cost 600.00 - bill sent to son (he is an adult now don’t ya know) who did not know he was to pay it, thought insurance did like his campus clinic visit, so off it went to collections! He did not understand this part of his new monitary life, and privacy laws. Oh, but the minute the collection agency got involved, presto, they called us right up to inform we needed to pay or “his credit will be ruined”. This was freshman year, and I never thought to include paying insurance bills as part of is $$$ debriefing! He still has a lose grasp on the nuances of personal finances. Hope to complete education in this area BEFORE he graduates.</p>
<p>Note: Freshman year, because he had a car he made many runs to ER at night for kids…“Mom I have to go, if he doesn’t get his front tooth back in in the next hour it will be too late” {{{hang up}}} Moral- Freshman year seems to be the worst for hospital/clinic visits.</p>
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<p>The UC insurance policies are campus specific. Not all require you to purchase a new policy if you are outside the Kaiser service area.</p>
<p>[UC</a> Santa Cruz Student Health Center](<a href=“http://www2.ucsc.edu/healthcenter/billing/insurance.shtml]UC”>http://www2.ucsc.edu/healthcenter/billing/insurance.shtml)</p>
<p>If you have Kaiser as your insurance plan. Before waiving the UCSC insurance plan, we ask you to consider the distance from campus to the nearest Kaiser facility. There is no Kaiser facility in Santa Cruz. The nearest Kaiser facility is “over the hill” in San Jose (a 35 mile/1 hour drive). There is no direct public transportation to get there, and a sick or injured student may not be well enough to spend half a day on bus rides just to get there. For families who live close enough to drive their student or the student has a car, Kaiser may be an option. For families not within an hour or so of Santa Cruz, other insurance is recommended.</p>
<p>We just waived the UC health insurance and used our own insurance that they were already covered under. If they’re already covered under your own insurance plan and it meets the requirements the particular UC has in order to waive the UC plan, I suggest waiving the UC plan and saving the money.</p>
<p>Both of the UCs my kids attended had major hospitals on campus so access to health care was easy (and covered by their own, non-UC, plan).</p>
<p>If the student isn’t in a plan that’s meets the requirements for waiving the UC insurance then the student is compelled to buy the UC plan.</p>
<p>Note - when waiving the UC plan you have to be on the ball and make sure the forms are filled out and returned on time or else they’ll automatically bill you for theirs and it’ll be difficult to dispute it after the fact. I’m fairly convinced (but no evidence to back it up) that it’s a moneymaker for them so they’d just as soon you have to buy their plan.</p>