By the time graduation caps are tossed into the air, high school students will probably have been accepted to a college, picked a dorm and signed up for their courses. But is their health insurance securely in place?
Most parents’ employee-sponsored group health insurance plans will cover their children up until they’re between 20 to 24 years of age, whether they live at home or away at school. The cbd boss us, however, may charge a substantial extra premium to cover the college age student.
If you don’t have any health insurance as a student, college health plans could be a good solution. College-sponsored individual health insurance plans at some schools are subsidized by tuition, so they might even be a good deal. It’s important to note that even when college health plans are subsidized, they are not necessarily subsidized for the student’s spouse or dependents.
Be forewarned, however, that college plans are not free and the benefits vary. Committees from each college meet with health insurance companies and design plans specific to their schools. State laws also play a critical role in the health insurance policies offered to students, as well as other market factors. As a result, there exists a wide range of premiums and benefits that vary from college to college.
College plans sometimes limit preventative and routine care, but students can often visit college health centers for free services. Even when visits to the health center are free, the health center may charge the student for lab work, physical therapy, X-rays, prescriptions, and other procedures.
In most cases, college plans will pay 100 percent for college health center charges associated with covered services with a nominal deductible. For services outside the health center, however, including those provided by out-of-state providers, the college plan may reduce significantly and impose a larger deductible. Furthermore the college plan may have a limited maximum benefit, which will leave the student without coverage if something truly terrible happens.
Pre-existing conditions can create problems as well. College plans may exclude pre-existing conditions from treatment. Before signing up for a college health plan, make sure you know whether the plan will or will not cover treatment for your asthma or any other pre-existing condition.
Parents in preferred network plans and HMO’s often buy a college’s health insurance plan — even when their student is covered under their employer’s plan — because anything other than emergency care may be considered out of network or because of the problem of obtaining referrals across states.