Understand Your Student Health Insurance Options
Besides understanding the covered benefits and annual premium calculations of the different student health insurance plans you are considering, you will also want to make certain that you qualify for each of these health care plans and that they will provide you with coverage year round. If you are attending a college outside of your home state, you may also want to make sure that the student health insurance plan will provide you with coverage on your return trips home.
Each health insurance policy you are considering, whether it be a student health insurance plan or an individual health insurance plan, will have set guidelines to determine your eligibility. The eligibility requirements on a student health plan are usually more lenient than those on individual health insurance plans, which is one of the main reasons that students tend to gravitate toward this type of health care plan. Usually, to be eligible for coverage you only need be a full time college student at a state accredited university. "Full-time" is most often defined as 9 or more college credits, but your college may have a different definition of full-time, and most student health insurance plans will accept your college's definition if it differs from their published definition.
If the student health plan you are considering is the one being offered through your college, you are automatically eligible for coverage under this plan when you enroll as s full-time student. If you are considering a private student health insurance policy, you may be required to answer a series of health related questions that will also determine your eligibility. If you are currently under treatment for any of the medical conditions listed on the questionnaire, the insurance company may elect to not approve you for coverage under their plan.
If you are considering an individual health insurance plan, the eligibility requirements will not be associated with your college attendance. These are permanent health insurance policies that you may keep for many years after your graduation and are not associated with your student health center. The eligibility requirements on these health plans are most often based on age and residency. If you are a foreign student, you may need to have one or more years of residency in the U.S. before you are eligible for coverage under a standard individual health insurance policy.
In addition to meeting the eligibility requirements for your health insurance choices, it is also important to understand the "benefit period." This refers to the length of time that you are able to continue on this policy once you no longer meet the eligibility requirements. Since most student health insurance plans are annually renewable, your benefit period may end at the time of the next renewal if you no longer meet the eligibility requirements of new enrollees. Some student health plans will continue to cover you after you graduate and are looking for employment. The longer the extended benefit that is offered by a student health insurance plan, the better and more flexible that plan will be if you have a change of plans or college transfers.
Another important factor to consider about any health insurance plan is the coverage area. This may be even more important if you are attending a university outside of your home state, or if you are a foreign resident. Some student health insurance plans may be associated with treatments at the student health center or health care facilities within a certain radius of the college. With these types of health plans, you may have no coverage during return trips home, or may only have treatment for emergency medical situations. Few health plans provide benefits outside of the U.S., so a foreign student may also wish to have temporary coverage for return trips to their home country.
Other useful information, that might be helpful in completing some of the steps are found in the sections below. On these pages you will find a list of items that you should expect to be included in your health plan, as well as a list of services that are typical excluded. Your state may have specific health insurance regulations that vary from other states, so the covered benefits in your state may be less or more comprehensive than our sample lists.
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