Unless you’ve been living under a rock until recently, you probably haven’t thought about what you will do for health insurance once you are in college. To be young is to feel immortal, but that doesn’t mean you actually are. Emergencies will hit you just like they do everyone else, and if you are not adequately prepared, you’re not just risking your health but your financial future as well.
Of course, you may not have a choice: over 30 percent of colleges require their students to carry a health plan before they will let them in. Regardless of whether your school requires insurance, most big colleges have doctors on hand so you might as well take advantage of it. They offer services ranging from acupuncture to general health, as well as counseling, urgent care, nutritional advice, physical therapy, and immunizations. The exact offerings differ by campus, but generally anything that isn’t major or doesn’t require a specialist can be addressed at the school.
As for acquiring insurance, here are a few things you should know before you head off to your studies.
1. Your Parents’ Plan
The first and most obvious choice is your parents’ employer-provided health plan. You can’t be excluded on the basis of pre-existing conditions, and thanks to the health care reform bill, you can stay on their plan until the age of 26 if you are not covered by your employer. This option also offers a wider array of coverage than you can get through any other source, but with something this good there is a catch: if you are not going to a local school, you might not be able to find any physicians that will accept your insurance. Do your research before you move across the country.
2. College Plans
You may be surprised to learn that many colleges provide their own health plans, and the premiums range from $30 to $2400 annually. The average student pays about $850 per year, and the doctors on campus are your go-to guys for colds, flus, and immunizations. Most plans have a cutoff point between $35,000 and $50,000, and that could leave you on the hook for thousands of dollars if you were to develop a serious condition. If your college does not provide disaster coverage of at least $250,000 then it may not be worth it.
3. Individual Coverage
The last type of insurance is the individual plan, and this is incredibly cheap if you are in good health. Many plans cost as little as $600 per year, and you might end up with a much wider range of health providers to choose from than you would with the other options. However, the co-pays tend to be a lot higher, and if you have pre-existing conditions like asthma, you might be denied coverage altogether. There is a provision in the Affordable Health Care Act (also known as Obamacare) that will make it illegal to deny anyone coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions as long as you shop for health insurance through the Marketplace. If that’s relevant to you and need insurance before then, the first two options are your best shot at getting adequate coverage.
We recommend visiting eHealthInsurance.com as it compares health insurance options to find the best insurance plan for your needs.
In the end, it’s better to have health insurance than to wish you had it, should something go wrong. Everybody will need to have a health plan at some point anyway, so you may as well jump on the bandwagon while you are young and premiums are cheap. If nothing else, a good insurance plan is worth the peace of mind it can provide you.
