Before looking into getting student health insurance, the first thing you MUST do is check the following sites to check exactly when you're coverage under your family's insurance policy can legally expire: --State Health Facts Online & Health Insurance Dependent Status If you are indeed in the market for health insurance, make sure to shop around. Some insurance sites allow you to compare quotes from providers, much like many auto-insurance companies do. One thing to consider, however, is that many insurance companies are starting to target insurance for students or recent graduates. Why? First, these groups are underinsured as a population. Second, insurance companies are starting to realize that these individuals are usually pretty healthy and don't need the same insurance policies as parents in their 40s. Sites like www.gradguard.com offer this type of insurance. You may choose simply to do cursory internet searches to find potential insurers. While searching for 'graduate insurance' or 'student insurance' may bring about good results, make sure to get insurance from a reputable dealer. A good way to protect yourself from predatory insurance companies or outright insurance fraud is to do the following, and thereby to make sure you're getting good insurance from a trustworthy, accredited source: 1) check for your state controller/regulator of insurance for information on your potential provider, 2) check these articles for signs of fraud: Consumer Reports (7 Signs a health plan might be junk) & InsuranceFraud.org (Phony health coverage- Scam Alerts, including 10 warning signs) Wall Street Journal - Are Campus Health Plans Failing Students? - Read the entire article here. Highlights from the article suggest: "There is broad consensus that, as a group, college health-insurance plans rank among the worst in the nation for consumers. Many college plans come with remarkably low benefit ceilings—in some cases as little as $2,500. Others limit areas of coverage, such as preventative services and chemotherapy. The upshot: Students are often much less insured than they think they are. In extreme cases high-school seniors with health issues might be advised to consider a college’s health plan before attending. The college health-care system is a hodgepodge of school plans and private insurance. According to the Government Accountability Office, more than half of the nation’s colleges offer school-sponsored plans. All told, about 80% of college students, nearly 7 million people, are covered by private or public health insurance.Parents and students can get the most for their money by carefully examining school plans before signing up. Health-care planning should come long before enrollment, says James A. Boyle, president of the College Parents of America, a Virginia-based nonprofit. Questions to Ask? “Anyone considering a school plan should ask a number of questions, say experts: • What is the maximum benefit for the policy? • Are prescriptions and mental health services included? • What happens to coverage if you leave school, go abroad or graduate? • What is the loss ratio? • Do any on-campus services, such as checkups or flu shots, overlap with existing coverage?" |
Some times articles are so comprehensive that they are worth
linking to and sharing directly. As a result, please see the story
from USA Today on the options for health insurance for college students.
Please read the complete article from USA Today here. http://usat.me/39772372 Here are some of the highlights:
 By Sandra Block, USA TODAY - “Here’s a look at your options:
•Your parents’ employer-provided plan. More than two-thirds of college students are covered by their parents’ plans, and even more could be eligible for that type of coverage next year. Under the health care reform bill signed into law in May, college students and other young adults who aren’t covered by an employer-provided plan can remain on a parent’s plan until age 26. For insurance plans that operate on a calendar-year basis, the requirement doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2011, but some large insurers have extended coverage ahead of the deadline. Pros: You’ll receive more generous coverage than you can get anywhere else, says Bryan Liang, executive director for the Institute of Health Law Studies at the California Western School of Law in San Diego. And your parents’ group plan can’t exclude you for having pre-existing health problems. “If you can get on your parent’s plan, take advantage of it, because employer-based coverage is the best coverage” you can get, Liang says. Cons: If you attend college far from home, you may
not have access to providers who participate in your parent’s plan, says
James Turner, director of the student health service at the University
of Virginia and immediate past president of the American •Your college’s health insurance plan. More than half of colleges and universities sponsor their own health insurance plans for students, according to a 2008 report by the GAO. Pros: If you don’t have access to a parent’s plan, your college’s plan could offer a low-cost source of coverage. Annual premiums for student health insurance plans range from $30 to $2,400, and the average premium is about $850, the GAO said. Cons: School-sponsored plans do a good job of handling immunizations, colds and flu, because their priority is to keep diseases from spreading across campus, says Joel Ohman, a financial planner and founder of Insurance Providers, an insurance brokerage website. But in many cases, he says, they don’t do a good job of covering major medical problems. For example, many college plans analyzed by the GAO had coverage limits for specific conditions. More than half of the plans had a maximum benefit amount of $30,000 per condition, and 35% had a cutoff of $50,000. Either limit could leave you on the hook for thousands of dollars if you developed a serious illness. In addition, some plans contained additional caps on the amount they would pay for a specific service or set of services, the GAO said. For example, one plan limited lifetime coverage for all outpatient services — including doctor’s visits, X-rays, lab fees and chemotherapy — to $1,200 per condition, the GAO said. A student diagnosed with cancer could hit that limit on the first day of treatment, Liang says. In April, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged that many school-sponsored plans provide generous profits to insurance companies while putting students at risk. An investigation by Cuomo’s office found that, in addition to low coverage limits, some plans excluded students with pre-existing
health problems, or charged them a higher premium. Others failed to
cover prescription drugs or placed limits on drug coverage, Cuomo said.
And some plans had per-illness caps as low as $700, Cuomo said. Cuomo’s
office looked at 65 policies offered by colleges and universities in New
York, along with some out-of-state schools
attended by New York residents. •Individual insurance plans. These plans are available through websites such as eHealthInsurance. Pros: Premiums for young, healthy adults are usually affordable — as low as $600 a year in some cases, Liang says. You may have a wider choice of providers than is available through your school’s health plan. And if you won’t be eligible for your parent’s plan until next year, an individual plan could provide short-term coverage at a relatively low cost. Some insurers are offering individual plans targeted at students who don’t have insurance through their parents but aren’t happy with their school’s plan. College Parents of America, a Virginia-based non-profit, recently launched GradGuard, an individual insurance plan that offers broader coverage than most
college plans. The plan covers up to $500,000 per condition. Annual
premiums range from $1,464 to $1,848, depending on the deductible.
Cons: Deductibles and co-payments may be higher than
those for a college-sponsored health plan. If you have chronic health
problems, such as asthma, you may not be able buy an individual
insurance plan, at least not at a price you can afford. The You can find more information about individual insurance plans and other options for the uninsured at HealthCare.gov.”
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