You’ve done all you could to prepare your child for college. You’ve set rules, stated guidelines and communicated your expectations. You’ve done your best; you’ve covered all the bases. Or have you?
Identifying Misconceptions
When it comes to sending their child off to college, many parents make the all too common mistake of assuming that their child will be covered under their health policy—and that their coverages and benefits will be the same while they’re away at college.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Many insurers still cover dependents until age 23, but many are terminating dependent coverage sooner—some as young as age 18. Furthermore, college students that attend school out-of-state may not receive all their benefits or may be charged additional fees for seeing physicians out of the insurer’s network.
So what’s a parent to do?
The Good News
Fortunately, if a student isn’t fully covered on a parent’s health insurance plan, there are affordable alternatives.
Generally speaking, college students and their parents tend to seek health plans from one of three places: the student’s college, a private health insurer or other student organizations.
The majority of colleges and universities now offer student health insurance for their attendants, which often consist of two or three policy options. While traditionally less expensive, the costs and coverages of university-sponsored health plans tend to be more fixed, which may not meet needs of students with pre-existing conditions.
Surprisingly, private health insurance for students is fairly inexpensive. Private health insurance is an especially attractive option for parents and students because it typically covers a wider range of benefits. Your chances of snagging discounts are also greater if you buy a student policy from a private insurer.
Other student health plans are available through student-help organizations like the American College Student Association (ACSA). Organizations like ACSA specialize in short-term health insurance and study abroad coverage, which is especially appealing to students wishing to travel.
Tips to Remember
Making sure the student in your life has adequate health insurance is important. As you ask questions and shop for health plans, consider the following tips:
Know the student’s needs. Does the student have allergies? A need for travel vaccines? Knowing what your student needs ahead of time will help narrow your policy options.
Know how long the student needs the coverage. Many insurers allow you to purchase policies that last anywhere from three months to a year—determine how long the student will need the policy to avoid paying for extra coverage.
Compare multiple policies. More health insurance options mean more options to save. Don’t forget to compare policy benefits, deductibles and limitations while searching for cheap health insurance.
Don’t skimp on major medical. Before buying a student health policy, make sure it covers major medical expenses. The cheapest policy in the world won’t save you money if it doesn’t cover major medical expenses!
Lessons Learned
Whether you’re a student yourself, or a parent seeking health insurance for a student, it’s important to understand that health insurance is an important part of staying healthy in college. Use the tips above to help you find the best—and the cheapest—student health insurance policy!
By: Megan Mahan
Posts Tagged ‘Private Health Insurance’
Health Insurance For Diabetics
January 15th, 2010
While health insurance is important to everyone, it is especially important to someone with diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that must be carefully controlled. Plus, even with tight controls, there may be complications as time goes on.
Unfortunately, with the exception of only 5 states, health insurance is medically underwritten. This means that you must answer certain medical history questions and qualify for the health insurance plan. Diabetes, in most instances, will make you ineligible for a private health insurance plan.
There are still alternative plans and methods for a diabetic to secure health insurance. This article will give you an overview of how to obtain a health insurance plan with diabetes.
Group Health Insurance
If you work for an employer who offers group health insurance your problem is over. Group health insurance is guaranteed issue and you cannot be declined for any pre-existing condition. Furthermore, even if you never had health insurance before or let it lapse, pre-existing conditions will be covered in full after 12 months. If you have had continuous coverage, there is no waiting period.
But, what if you want a full major medical plan and do not have group health insurance available to you?
If you work in certain industries, you can purchase a guaranteed issue major medical plan with no medical questions.
Major Medical
Currently, those industries eligible for major medical include:
- Real Estate – agents, brokers, mortgage brokers, appraisers, clerical and administrative staff. Anyone in the real estate or mortgage industry can qualify.
- Construction – This is a fairly broad category. It encompasses anyone in any aspect of the construction industry.
- Information Technology (05/08) – another broad category that includes programmers, network engineers and technicians, web developers and designers, repair technicians. Again, anyone in the information technology industry or administrative personnel working for an information technology company.
Limited Benefit Health Insurance
A limited benefit plan is also guaranteed issue and available to any diabetic under the age of 65.
Limited benefit plans, sometimes referred to as “mini medical”, vary widely in terms of the benefits they offer.
We suggest that whenever possible the plan include the following:
Pay at least $1,000 a day for hospitalization (more would be better).
Have a surgical schedule that is not limited by any caps.
Pay for a limited number of office visits and diagnostic tests.
Be HIPAA-qualified (this means that it is credible coverage or real health insurance and not a discount plan with some extra benefits thrown on top). Use a national PPO network.
Critical Illness Coverage
Anyone between the ages of 18 and 64 can obtain a guaranteed issue critical illness plan.
This plan will pay you a lump sum of $25,000 upon diagnosis of certain life threatening illness. They include cancer, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, etc.
In addition, this plan will pay $500 for each 24 hour stay in a hospital. It is an ideal plan to add to a limited benefit plan to increase the coverage or just use as a standalone plan. For an individual, the cost is $88 a month.
Where Can I Get More Information?
We recommend that you talk with an insurance agent who specializes in guaranteed issue plans. The best site we know of is www.guaranteed-health-insurance.com. You can reach them at 800-986-4786 9 AM to 9 PM EST.
A Word of Caution
Quite often, individuals who are having difficulty obtaining health insurance are taken advantage of. They are sold worthless discount plans or overpriced coverage that offers very little protection. Please use common sense when shopping for a plan and read everything carefully.
By: Martin Unger
Utah Uninsurable Canidates for Health Insurance
January 17th, 2009
To understand your problem is to understand state health insurance regulations in Utah. They allow insurance carriers to decline and or rate up pricing for private health insurance based upon certain health conditions which cause you to be labeled uninsurable. This is very much different than employer offered insurance which is controlled by federal laws that prohibit denial of coverage for health conditions. Most people get stuck in this “denial jam” if they are between jobs or self employed. The good news is that coverage is available EVEN with carriers that may have declined you already. You just have to know how to secure it.
What is “High risk health insurance”? You can define this in several ways such as coverage obtainable from three sources. Source 1 would be from a COBRA policy. COBRA policy is usually very expensive with the trade off being that your medical conditions are covered for at least 18 months. From a underwriters perspective, COBRA is a high risk insurer proposition because of the carrier being locked into liability of claim payments for 18 months. Most COBRA premiums run around $900 per month for a middle aged family. Source 2 would be with the STATE HIGH RISK POOL. You would qualify for that if you didn’t have access to COBRA benefits or a private health insurance policy. They require you to be declared “uninsurable” by private health insurance issued by either ALTIUS, SelectHealth Plans (IHC) and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah.
The premium for the state pool is around $400 per month per family member whom is determined to be uninsurable. Only the uninsurable family members will be issued a policy through this program. The other insurable family members would have to secure a policy through channels such as ALTIUS, SelectHealth Plans (IHC) and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah. The State high risk pool deductible is around $2,500 with options of 50/50 coinsurance. Source 3 would be a INTERIM or SHORT TERM policy.
Typically the coverage is very low priced if the insured agrees to accept a medical rider for the health conditions that caused “declined health insurance”. The trade off is beneficial for people that are not being actively treated for the medical condition that caused the decline in the first place! You have to understand that logic does not apply with an normal healthy person being declined for a medical condition or use of prescriptions in the past. The state insurance regulations allow these declinations. We have always said that if in the next life there is not a hell…there should be just to burn underwriters! Many people can actually secure a reputable health insurance policy to cover them for everything else and elevate the risk of going “Uninsurable”. We can make recommendations of getting prescription coverage as long as you take the responsible step of securing a health insurance policy to hedge off financial disaster.
At BenefitsManager.net we like to clarify and warn Utah residents of the following:
What “High risk health insurance” IS NOT! Basically any type of indemnity insurance policy. Many reputable carriers such as AFLAC and ALLSTATE offer these. They are normally called hospital plans, accident plans, cancer policies, etc. These are not functioning health insurance policies! They only pay a limited and or specified amount of money per occurrence. They will not cover the costs of treatments or the bills associated. Unfortunately much mis-representation takes place in the market of how these policies actually work.
Discount health plans are dangerous and currently under investigation by the Utah State Insurance Department. We must make it clear that these type of plans are NOT insurance. They only give you access to a limited doctor panel that will agree to treat you at a discounted rate. Currently there are several entities making claims that it is an insurance policy which in fact they are not and they have not been approved so by the Utah State Insurance Department. These discount health plans do not meet the basic definition of insurance policy. Nor do they provide coverage for medical conditions or the definition here in.
By: Mike Oliphant
