In the days before a new school year is about to begin, you may want to take the time to find out about student health insurance plans. Most, if not all, colleges will offer this plan to new, and also to returning, college students. Some schools will require that students have this form of insurance, especially if the student is not covered by any other kind of health insurance.
Student health insurance plans come in many forms. A school sponsored health plan is one that is purchased from the university or college that a student will be attending. In general, this kind of health insurance has very strict limits about what will, and will not, be covered. The choice of doctors will be limited to the ones that work at the on-campus student health center.
An individually purchased student health plan is one purchased directly from an insurance company. This kind will have it’s own limits about what will, and will not, be covered. However, there will be more choices available about what doctor a college student can visit, and where he or she can go to get medical attention.
Some students will be eligible to be covered by his or her parent’s health insurance plan. This might include an employer based health insurance plan, or an individual family policy. These plans can cover a person who is between 18 and 26 years of age, even if he or she is not actually enrolled in college. Starting as soon as September of 2010, young adults who are under the age of 26 can be insured under a parent’s insurance policy. The parent’s plan must allow for coverage of dependents. However, if the parent has an employer based health plan, and their college aged dependent is able to get his or her own employer based coverage, then the young adult cannot be covered by his or her parent’s health insurance. Some insurance plans have already started covering young adults under their parent’s plans, but not all are ready to do that yet. There are other details involved concerning how this is supposed to work.
People who have been denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition may be eligible to enroll in a form of Federal health insurance. If this describes your college student, you may want to take a more in depth look at how that coverage works. Deciding what kind of health insurance is best for your college student is just one of many important choices that parent’s of college students need to make.
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