<p>That is a very reasonable price if it covers your student for an entire year. We had to pay more for the student insurance when we purchased it for S, but it made us sleep better at night, knowing there would be no gaps in coverage and their policy was a pretty decent one. Fortunately, it was never needed or used.</p>
<p>Glad your H’s employer will be re-examining its health insurance for this issue. It’s annoying when insurance doesn’t provide the protection and coverage we believe it should.</p>
<p>Make sure you check on what the copay and deductable are for the school insurance. In our case, the insurance wasn’t expensive, but the deductable was so high we would have paid out of pocket had our family insurance not kicked in.</p>
<p>Yes, the high deductible ($350 or $500 deductible, plus co-pays) was one reason we didn’t bother having S get any services while he was on his student or interim insurance. It was so high that it didn’t make any sense to use services unless we thought it would be much above the deductible. He was able to wait until he got back, on the family plan to see all his providers then. It did comfort us that there would be no gaps in his coverage, just in case something came up later.</p>
<p>Here’s my opinion: If you child is close enough to home to come home for medical care, then waive the university insurance, especially if your child has access to the health center for routine stuff. On the other hand, if your child is more than a couple hours away from home, I would purchase the university policy (or make sure your private insurance covers routine, specialist and emergency care). Sure, it’s a gamble - but you never know when your child will get sick or injured. My D ended up with a ruptured eardrum (2 ENT visits) and dance injuries (several visits to orthopedist). She also has used a local dermatologist near her campus.</p>
<p>Our DS is going to a college that is only 45 minutes away so I know that he is covered by our insurance. However if he hadn’t I would have bought the college’s insurance simply because they told us during orientation that the ambulance charge from Georgia Tech to the hospital was $3,000… Yikes!!</p>