Our BC/BS PPO had this feature…but the HMO BC/BS plans do not. Folks need to check the type of plans they have to see if this feature is offered on their BC/BS plan.
@websensation I totally agree with you about the level of coverage. We did this “dance” in Georgia, and the Ambetter plan DD got as an individual plan (no other options once BC pulled out…plus now they are back in but WAY more costly) was not nearly as good even in terms of Doctor network than the policy through her college.
That’s not fair. Health insurers are bound by all sorts of state and federal regulations which can muck things up. One which makes it extremely frustrating for out of state kids is they can’t port their coverage from state to state. For us, the kid is essentially “out of network” one state over. Anything major, he’ll need to come home. Eliminating the state boundary problem could go a long way, but the rest is politics. 
Blue Cross and Blue Shield are brand names that are put on different plans in different states. In my state of California, Blue Cross and Blue Shield are different; Blue Cross plans are from Anthem, and Blue Shield plans are from someone else. Your state (what is it?) may have a company that offers this excellent Away From Home Care program, but it’s not a national program. It might not even be statewide.
Agnes Scott is requiring good insurance, equivalent to a good Gold plan, for all students. Many schools don’t realize how they disadvantage lower income students, and this is just one example. 4sugarplums’ daughter is now on CHIP, which is free; suddenly springing on the sugarplum family that they need to come up with another $3500 a year is a nasty surprise. Families with more means can just write another check, but for a family that doesn’t have any discretionary income, coming up with another $3500 can be impossible. I hope the problem is resolved soon.
@“Cardinal Fang” We are in NJ, so it’s Horizon BCBS. If she went to school in NY state, the Away From Home Care program would enable her to use Empire BCBS (the NY version of BCBS). Empire would then bill Horizon. In the state of Michigan, she uses BCBS of Michigan, which bills Horizon.
You have a BC/BS PPO or POS plan if you have the Away from Home or Blue Care Plan.
Some BC/BS plans are HMO plans and do not have this option.
Folks need to check THEIR plans to see if this option is available.
Yup, every BCBS has their own plans, naming, etc. I will say that the Blues are the most likely place to find insurance that works at home and away at college in another state.
A plan like a college plan may still have coverage at home away from school, but it probably has less coverage/higher copays away from the school area.
Another problem we had was getting our hands on the in depth details of the school plan before deciding to purchase. (Like, what happens with out of network treatment?) I remember that there were no links on the college website, at least some years.
All insurance is STATE controlled. There was someone complaining earlier this year about Cornell not accepting a plan that worked in other parts of NY (I think they were from NY but not upstate NY). UCSB won’t accept Kaiser insurance plans as the closest clinic is 40 miles from school. Half of California has Kaiser, but it’s not good enough for UCSB. Georgia is also a big state and the Agnes Scott requirement is that the insurance works IN Decatur county.
The school my daughter went to in Florida required all international students to buy the student plan offered. Others could waive that requirement but not international students. Unfair? They aren’t going to review hundreds of policies so set one rule for everyone.
Anyone SHOULD be able to get a full copy of the policy before they purchase and read the geographic and other limitations. They need to be spelled out in the policy and once the contract is signed, the insurer and the person who is the beneficiary of the policy are bound by the written terms of the policy. Sometimes employees may give you incorrect information, so reading the policy itself is safest and should be available from the U that is offering it.
“Should” and “is” are two different things. The university isn’t actually the provider, they contract with a 3rd party insurance company.
Hi guys. OP here. I just want to say thank you again for everyone being so kind and helpful. I learned alot and that’s important but I think I also just felt better about people, and that’s an even bigger thing sometimes. 
Now, strap in and bear with me because I have a story to tell. (I promise my middle name isn’t Loquacious, though it may seem like it by the time you are done. But I swear there is a point!)
Like so many here, this whole college admissions thing has been a tough go. It was so exciting deciding where to apply and browsing through all these amazing places on the internet. We weren’t able to visit any, but my D had been perusing for a long time and knew what she was looking for. We both just marked days down on the calendar, in anticipation of March, to see how it all shook out and where she would be heading. She cannot wait to get out of small town MS so it was kind of a nice anticipatory time. The first acceptance came thru on a Friday night while she and I were sitting watching a movie. We were so clueless about the whole process, we didn’t even know decisions were coming out! It was Agnes Scott, with a nice scholarship. How exciting! I don’t think we ever even finished the movie. We talked to grands and whooped and hollered. A week or so later, the second acceptance came thru - Bard Berlin, with a nice merit aid scholarship. Yay! (Also, again, no clue it was even coming). Man, this is going to be FUN. Then came a target school - waitlisted. Oops, a blip, but fine. About five days later, another target…waitlisted. Uh oh. I was sitting at a ballet class with my younger daughter and just boo hooed, but to the dismay of D. I think I knew then we were in trouble. (Plus, MHC was our favorite, I think). Sure enough, the remaining six were reaches and they all came in…four in one day…rejected. It was awful. And sad. So, so, sad.
But compounding it FOR ME, at our house, was the extreme guilt. See, we homeschool. It was a choice we made in sixth grade. And the absolutely right choice for this kid, being who she is and where we live. She thrived. Got to go and do things she couldn’t have done stuck in public school. Like going to see James Meredith when he came to our little library in 7th grade and getting to have a talk with him. That kind of thing was priceless for her. Anyway, people would ask about college and I would be, like, pshaw, it will be fine. She’s a great, smart kid (good enough ACT in 7th grade to go thru Duke TiP program) and anybody would be glad to have her. I had NO CLUE. So I didn’t guide her - we didn’t know the vast difference between public and private. IS and OOS. FAFSA. CCS. It was a learning curve. And then I had to fill out the rec for her since she didn’t have a guidance counselor. Do you know how hard it is to do that as her MOM?? How do you separate the two? But I did - pounded one out and thought it was great. Spoke to who she was while being entertaining because, hey, I figured those admission folks got tired of seeing the same ole rec letters day in and day out. They would remember this one! (In other words, I didn’t take it serious enough). Flan liked it, except for one line - well, one word really - but I refused to change it because I thought it was great! And said who she was! And did I mention entertaining??
Well, you can imagine how I’ve lost sleep over this one. Obviously, it wasn’t entertaining. Or serious enough. Or whatever. I have beat myself thinking this is why she didn’t get in until I’m black and blue. That on top of all the other mistakes we made. Like, thinking since we are lower income in the most pitiful state in the union, grant and federal aid money would be good and there would be no issues. HA!
So here we are. End of April, looking down the barrel of May 1. Going back and forth between two perfectly fine places about the same price. Until I saw the insurance cost. So, let me stop here and do this. Wednesday night at 12:30 am my precious daughter sent this text:
what if i paid for my insurance for AS, could we make it work? like i know i have to put all my job stuff towards other college expenses but after the next couple weeks, especially once i’m done with writing and stuff and don’t have to leave early, i could try to work full time hours if they’ll give them to me. i know it’s not only insurance, but if it was and i could make $300 a week from working a few more hours, then i’d have a year of insurance paid for after three months of working. i could do that every summer and pay for it every year. i know there’s other stuff to pay for too, but even if i could work that much and do like 200 or 250 of it for insurance so it’s easier on you and still earn money for actual tuition. i basically have money for books already.
(Part two next)
That text is what precipitated this thread here on CC. I just didn’t know what to do. She’s already working five days at a deli, and most Saturdays with her dad. Her dad works 7 days and can’t do anymore than that. I’m at six, more or less. I’m an Advanced Maternal Age momma and just couldn’t figure out how to go $80,000 in debt at our age and with no retirement as self employed people. I thought surely there was a way about the insurance that I didn’t know about. It was kind of going to be a deal breaker at this point.
So Thursday morning I was at my lowest. I haven’t slept since March (hyperbole, but not by much). Why didn’t she get in? What have I done? Why did I write that? Why didn’t we do other schools? Why did we not plan better? How do we pay for where she did get in?? I had read here about U of AL just looking for high stats kids (which she is) to throw money at to come to school there so she last minute applied there to pacify me in case we could get a good ride and she would just have to go to Tuscaloosa. I convinced her it wouldn’t be so bad if she got in the Honors College. Well, let me tell ya, I got the snootiest email I’ve ever gotten from that school that her transcript wouldn’t be considered because it wasn’t good enough (that’s how I read it in my mind, anyway). I replied that that wasn’t how homeschool in MS worked - no grades, no stats, no tests, no credits. She basically wrote back too bad, so sad. Send another by snail mail or else. (Again, my mind). I fell apart. Alabama, just keep that $40 app fee and $13 ACT fee!
Folks, I’m not a religious person. I grew up southern Baptist, both granddads southern baptist preachers, and all that comes with that. I lost most of my religion thru the years. But, let me tell ya, I became a praying person again thru all this. Lord, Just don’t punish my light filled kid for my sins. Please put her where she needs to be. Please help her off the waitlist. Please help us find a way. But Thursday morning, betweenher text and the insurance and the U of AL email and the fatigue and the worry, I said, “LORD! That’s it! I’m at my bottom! Whatever lesson, however you are trying to humble me, I AM THERE!” I was broken.
And then, after lunch that same day, a message popped up here in my inbox. Someone, my Sugar Plum Fairy they call themselves, said they wanted to send me a check for the four years of insurance at AS and what was my address.
Uh…what??
It’s hard to take something like that serious. The internet is full of crazy. But this person sure didn’t seem crazy! So I sent my address.
And do you know what came priority mail today?
A check for four years of insurance to Agnes Scott.
To say that that is a life changer for my daughter - and us - is an understatement.
But not only that, it is a remainder of the goodness in the world and the faith that sometimes comes around in the strangest, oddest places.
The Sugar Plum Fairy wants to remain anonymous. But she/he wanted me to relay this message:
Do good where you can, when you can, as often as you can.
Most of us can’t make these big, grand gestures but we can make small ones that may have just as big an impact - and most of the time you won’t even know you did. I sure don’t know what I ever did to deserve such grace and goodness but I will make even more of an effort now to spread it around. My daughter has always been the best person I know so I like to think a little bit of that is coming back to her so she can later turn around and do the same. I know that’s all so corny but I’m typing thru tears and I hope y’all know what I mean.
So thank you to this site. And to each of you for helping other parents and students here maneuver thru this stressful time.
And to my Sugar Plum Fairy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
“Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty.”
I’m…I’m speechless.
Thank you so much, Sugar Plum Fairy, for helping out this family, They’ve been on my mind.
Thank you so much 4sugarplums for writing this all out for us. For being who you are and sharing this journey,
I’m rooting for your D and will continue to do so for the next four years!
Keep us posted!
@4sugarplums Thank you for sharing. This bought tears to my eyes. What a blessing.
Your daughter’s industriousness will also take her far. Her attitude and willingness to step up says a lot about the young lady you raised!
I’ve read this thread but not posted. Tears in my eyes.
Sugar Plum Fairy you have done a wonderful act of kindness.
This is unbelievably beautiful.
How beautiful. I’m not an emotional person, but you’ve brought tears to my eyes. We’ve been in a position where everything seemed lost, and someone came along and helped me pull myself up… and I’m eternally grateful. I’ve loved “getting to know you” through your writing- which is wonderful by the way- and I hope that your daughter has the most amazing experience at AS.
Brought tears to my eyes as well!
I’m all teary-eyed right now. What a beautiful act of pure kindness. I’m so happy for your daughter and whole family, @4sugarplums! Thank you for sharing your story. And thank you, anonymous fairy!
Wow, that is great. ? So glad it will work out! Please come back to this thread and update us periodically on how she is doing. I’m bookmarking it!
Amazing