<p>We've been notified that we will have to purchase health insurance for our daughter who will be attending UCSB this fall. Our daughter is already covered by Kaiser, but the nearest location is 10 miles past the arbitrary limit set by UCSB. This is extortion. UCSB is not in the healthcare business; and, should not be demanding parents pay more for what they already pay for. Enough is enough!!! An official investigation needs to be undertaken to determine who is responsible for this and who is making money on the backs of the already overburdened parents and students.</p>
<p>EDIT: No facebook links permitted per the TOS.<br>
ED, Mod</p>
<p>Nearest Kaiser to UCSB is 42 miles away (Google maps says 43 minutes by car, over 3 hours by public transportation) – not exactly easily accessible. What is the net price difference if she drops Kaiser and takes the UCSB plan?</p>
<p>Kaiser sounds good to us in Santa Barbara, but really it is too far away. Ventura can be a very long drive if there is traffic or construction. I don’t think it would be safe for her to not have access to local medical care.</p>
<p>Now, look at what we went through and tell me if your daughter’s health is worth it. </p>
<p>We were able to waive our daughter’s SUNY health insurance fees and we used our insurance, which was better than what was offered by the school plan. Our daughter did become sick in the cold upstate NY winters and had to be hospitalized but the nice thing was that the hospital was 10 minutes away from her school. There was an on campus hospital but I didn’t want her in a teaching hospital. I couldn’t get a flight out, but the hospital kept in constant contact with me by phone. They said we had excellent insurance and she wasn’t charged a penny; all labs, physicians fees and hospital fees were covered. The nurses and physicians indicated that the school insurance would have covered most of the costs, but not all of them the way our private insurance did. </p>
<p>Now why am I telling you this? Because now the national insurance plans have caused changes to the private sector and insurance coverage. The problem that you have is that sometimes Kaiser just can’t cover emergency situations unless the emergency has been handled by a Kaiser facility with Kaiser pharmaceutical hours. I would much rather take the risk, with the university’s insurance, rather than wait for an ambulance to Kaiser. It is my daughter’s/ son’s life. </p>
<p>This year, we’re putting both of our kids on the university plan because our private insurance is more expensive than the both university’s plans. The plans are very similar in coverage so it won’t really make that much of a difference. I just want to keep my kids safe and healthy and if that means paying a few dollars more, I think my children’s lives are worth it. </p>
<p>It’s not extortion. There has to be some numerical limit and someone will always be just over it. But it’s not like it’s a cleaning fee or something; it’s health insurance. They want to make sure that your daughter is covered in case of a medical emergency - or even just non-urgent care. It’s universal to colleges and it’s not unreasonable that they expect that your daughter should be able to get care within the immediate vicinity of campus. The school itself isn’t making a profit; the money goes to the insurance company.</p>
<p>However, some of the other UC campuses are much closer and more convenient to Kaiser offices (and other medical providers, giving students more of a choice of providers and insurance plans for which the providers are in-network).</p>
<p>This may be something to consider when considering a college that is not in a major metropolitan area with a good selection of medical providers.</p>
<p>Just as a comparison, at UCD it’s $618/quarter, $1,854/year for 2014-2015. I’m not sure about the other UCs.</p>
<p>I get where you’re coming from on the cost issue, but really it’s better to be safe than sorry. Especially when the nearest Kaiser hospital is apparently 40+ miles away.</p>
<p>And well, for an example in favor of the school insurance: One of my roommates had to be hospitalized our freshman year, and her family had waived the UC insurance for her. She ended up with a 3k hospital bill because of complications with her insurance, whereas with the school insurance she would’ve been largely covered.</p>
<p>UCD Graduate Student’s rate is $1,144/Quarter or $3,432/year (ouch!).</p>
<p>For next year, you may want to look into changing your insurance provider (if possible) to one that’s also local to UCSB. If it will reduce your rates, look into dropping her from your insurance once she’s covered by UCSB. </p>
<p>Usually all plans, even Kaiser, will cover an emergency at an out of network hospital. They won’t cover routine care and will require transportation to a Kaiser facility as soon as possible, and you might have a bigger deductible to meet, but the student does have health insurance. Driving 50 miles for medical care in California is not unheard of (driving 50 miles for anything in California is not unheard of). In case of an emergency, the EMTs are going to take the injured person to the nearest hospital, not to the nearest hospital in the insurance network.</p>
<p>I was going to move my two college students off my plan because it is more expensive to have them on my plan, but then I figured we’d have three deductibles to meet, so I’m going to keep them on the main policy.</p>
<p>It is required that all students be insured in order to get federal funding. The schools can decide what insurances it will accept, but it is a requirement now or the school will lose federal funding.</p>
<p>That’s interesting they are making you but it. When I was in undergrad, I just had to send in a waiver every year since I had my own. They did try to enroll me one year since they messed it up but we got out of it after a mess. Are you sure there is no option to waive?</p>
<p>The waiver usually has some restrictions. Sounds like one is distance to a covered facility, and they are outside that area. I will say that my kid’s college had a deductible cap we were over, and they had a waiver we could sign confirming we could cover the higher deductible. They don’t advertise the existence of this waiver, you have to ask them.</p>