<p>Is this something that most families take advantage of? Our dd's school is out of state so all immediate health care would be classified Out of network I think. So, for an additional $487 a semester we could have additional basic coverage. I'm thinking it is probably a good idea. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>There are lots of threads on this topic but in a nutshell - most colleges will require the student to take their insurance unless they can verify a certain amount of college-defined coverage from the student’s health insurance coverage. This usually means accessibility to a health care person within so much distance from the college, a certain level of out-of-pocket maximum, a certain level of coverage, etc.</p>
<p>If your D won’t be covered by your insurance at her school then you’ll likely either need to take the school’s plan or modify your plan to cover her while she’s away.</p>
<p>I ‘opted out’ of the school offered insurance because my plan is better and the kids were covered at their schools (both have major med centers and other health care people on or near campus).</p>
<p>We have good health insurance so will opt out of the school plan. While looking at the info on how to waiver the insurance I noticed his school offers dental insurance. We don’t have dental and I am going to look into the school plan. It is a PPO through Aetna. I wish I had know about it sooner after he just had three cavities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>kcdunlap…check with your health insurance carrier. We have Anthem BC/BS and our kids both went to school out of state. There were IN NETWORK providers everywhere. Because we told Anthem they were college students in another state, this was not a problem at all. In fact, DD just completed a second round of physical therapy with an in network provider all the way across the country.</p>
<p>It depends on your plan.</p>
<p>Depends on the school, the plan offered, and the student. Our HMO will cover emergency care, but not routine illness and doctor visits at her school location. The school’s plan was around $1400 a year ($1600 next year!), very comprehensive, and was offered to us but not mandatory. We did not sign up, as the student health center is available to everyone for a small fee per visit. D had one sore throat, and the visit, strep test and antibiotic came to $50 total. I am a little concerned that she may get hurt playing her club sport and I am not sure how we would handle that, but she is not too far away and we will deal with it if it happens.</p>
<p>I was also concerned that if she took their insurance, which is an annual plan, it would be considered her primary plan when she was home for the summer, which would mean our HMO wouldn’t pay and she would have to travel back to school for sumer care.</p>