This is such a beginner question but I can’t figure it out. Are healthcare premiums included in tuition or are they additional? We plan to cover DD through our insurance if we can get a waiver, but I can’t figure out if it is an additional charge or an included charge.
Thanks!
In most cases, the college health insurance is a separate item. At some places, it’s not included in the cost of attendance at all.
Costs vary wildly by college…so you need to call the schools and ask what the cost is…and find out if you will qualify for a waiver of their plan. This will require their level of coverage in the state in which the college is located.
At my D’s school it is not included in the tuition and is billed as a separate item. We complete a waiver each year so as not to pay for the schools insurance. The waiver needs to be approved and the parents insurance needs to be accepted at the school, hospitals etc.
Never heard of health insurance being part of college costs, much less part of tuition and fees. Keeping your college student on the family health plan may be the best option (unless dropping an only child decreases your premiums by enough). Consider coverage during off seasons- such as summer, winter break coverage.
Thanks! I feel like I am playing a game with no rule book. I wonder how many families get surprised by that cost!
I’ll bet people get used to the family employer based insurance and forget about it. I wonder how many schools require their insurance versus accepting outside (family) sources. Some may offer it for those needing coverage but most likely have the family’s policy.
Figure out if your student will be covered under your homeowner’s policy while away from your home. Ours was while in the dorm and apartments. Once he graduated his status changed.
Not part of tuition. I think college health insurance cost depends on state laws. In some states, the cost is twice in other states.
It’s a great question that all people should be aware of. I just checked and for Purdue the annual cost is $1,300 but there are deductibles. At Cornell, the annual cost is $2,700. We really struggled with the decision of purchasing the insurance for our dd’s. Although they are covered under our insurance, much of the costs are out of network. Our insurance does cover a visit to the CVS Minute Clinic for a $20 co-pay and emergency room visit for $100 co-pay, the same as if they were at home (both went to school OOS). They’ve used both services, particularly the Minute Clinic. It’s a good place to go for flu, strep, and mono testing. There were extra fees involved for the tests but they were reasonable. However, when my d had a concussion and was referred to a neurologist, it was going to be out of network and out of pocket. There was a slightly lower rate through our insurance if we used a network of doctors with another insurance company which our insurance had an agreement. It’s a PITA negotiating and although I know we did the right thing by declining Cornell’s health insurance, I think we would have rested a bit easier having paid for Purdue’s insurance. Whenever d comes home, I schedule a visit with her doctor to have a check up and prescriptions refilled. Problem is that once she left for school in the fall of sophomore year, her visits have been rare as summer internships and study abroad have kept her away from home.
There are deadlines by which the waiver paperwork has to be sent to he college. You need to ask the college what that date is and how their process works.
And you might have to do the waiver process every year.
@wis75 The way ai am reading it kids are automatically enrolled and billed unless parents can prove they have acceptable coverage. I am not sure if ours will be acceptable by some of the schools standards. It looks like a lot of it covers for only school year leaving me to buy coverage for summers. Good advice about the dorm/apartment insurance!
My husband and I do not get insurance through work. We buy on the individual market. So, our D buys the health insurance plan at her OOS public university. It’s about $2200 for the calendar year.
You also need to check your work provided health insurance. If your kiddo attends college OOS, and you have a HMO type of plan, the HMO just might not provide coverage in that other state…at all except for ER. Schools have a minimum level of coverage they require to be able to waive their school plan. Make sure your plan meets that requirement.
For my S, I had to bump up our family insurance from the “basic” plan to the next step up offered by my employer, in order to meet the requirements of his school. I did the math and it was less expensive to do it that way than to purchase insurance for him separately through the school.
One daughter buys the school plan (about $1300/yr, the spring policy goes through the summer) as our insurance only covers in the state except for emergencies. Other daughter is just over the state line, so if she needs care she can easily come home.
So far she’s only used the school plan for strep tests and a flu test at the campus health center. I then get billed about $8 for the strep tests after the discount. She uses the prescription benefits.
California schools are very strict about the insurance policies they will accept, and I think Mass is too. They want everyone to have an instate policy and all those youth premiums help pay for the state programs.
When D2 was at Cornell I was the only person on my company’s health insurance. For me it was cheaper for D2 to be on the school’s health insurance. The plan was also better than my company’s even though it was acceptable by the school.
As mentioned by other posters, waiver needed to be applied every year or they automatically enroll the student. I did that when D1 was in school. Cornell’s insurance covered 12 months, not just when students were in school.
Each school is different. It is better to check and read the fine prints.
Penn and MIT accepted my Blue Cross Blue Shield employer insurance.
@twoinanddone , my daughter goes to school in California and has out of state insurance. Her school requires a waiver which we applied for and received after confirming that dh’s work policy would cover her in California.
Editing to add for the OP, that we were given plenty of notice from her school regarding the insurance requirement and its costs, along with a webinar for instructions on what the process was to apply for a waiver that was very informative. The school sent regular emails referencing the deadline for applying so was very proactive in ensuring people got their waivers in. I don’t recall the cost but it was much cheaper to keep our daughter on our insurance.
Right, but the California schools actually require the request for a waiver and check to make sure the insurance is sufficient. For each of my daughters in other states, I had to check a box once on the registration and the schools took the insurance off the bill - no submitting the other policy, no approval needed. It was up to us to decide if we wanted the school’s policy and the schools didn’t even ask what other insurance we had.
In Santa Barbara, there is no Kaiser facility within 40 miles, so the school won’t accept Kaiser as a policy. Many people in CA have Kaiser, so they have to buy another policy or the school’s policy.
My girls are both within two hours of home. They are on our insurance and have never had an issue using it at school. I will tell you that at one school we could refuse the school’s insurance once for all four years and the other we have to do so each year. One more thing to keep on our radar.
Anyone posting about schools accepting OOS insurance needs to put the year…and the company…and the type of plan.
Pre- ACA, our family plan was fine…and ours is a PPO so there are some OOS providers. BUT times have changed…and we learned that with our DD. She had an Anthem BC/BS plan that was an HMO…and her OOS school would not accept it. Period. Because it only had ER coverage in the state where the school is located. So she has an individually purchased plan from that state.
She is over 26…but do check your family policy. If it’s a HMO type of plan…it might NOT have coverage OOS.