Can anyone recommend health insurance for college students? Preferably Medical and Dental. But Medical at the least. Our 22 year old son has just been dropped from my husband's employer coverage. I thought at long as he was a full time student he would still be covered. Guess not.
Still researching different plans, wish I had researched all this so much sooner when it wasn't urgent! But thanks to all for the tips and advice. Really appreciate it!
Call your insurance and ask them at what age they drop a full time student, they may just need proof his his student status. It might be 22 or 25. Some schools offer limited insurance policies too. Other than that he can get an individual policy through lifewise or regence for pretty cheap. Just google lifewise washington or regence washington to compare plans and pricing, or call 18003642993 or ###-###-####. Good luck!
I agree with the poster who said to double check that your ins. doesn't just need verification. You may have already...but they're notorious for not "mentioning" x. Especially when 'x' is something easy, that would keep someone qualified :P
Beyond that: Here's personal experience:
The UW student medical is decent. Not spectacular, but decent. Several steps above Group Health, to have a comparative. Just by being a student there (if that's where your son is at) he would have free/majorly discounted access to tons of practitioners & specialists. You CAN buy extra insurance through them, and it's usually a good idea.
The insurance offered by most of the community colleges though, is a joke. This info is a year old...but this is what we found out looking at what was offered through BCC. It's cheap at around 200 a month but it ONLY covers illness & injury. IE you can go to the Dr. for the flu...but not for cancer/ headaches/ therapy (physical or mental)/ physicals/ birthcontrol/ STD testing(or god forbid treatment)/ etc. & the "injury" when we looked into it only covered acute care for broken bones & lacerations, but not follow-up care, antibiotics...etc. SOME surgeries were allowed (for example in the case of car accidents), but only surgeries due to injuries, and only the initial lifesaving surgery. All the ancillary stuff (anesthesiologists, labs, xrays, secondary surgeries, etc.) was not covered.
Ummm....having worked in healthcare for years, it's usually better to have NO insurance then crappy insurance. If you have no insurance & an emergency occurs, the hospital helps you apply for state aid/grants/probono work. If you have insurance but it's lousy, you're on the hook AND you have to do all the footwork yourself AND you're disallowed from most of those programs.
Summation : If he's at a U (UW, SU, WSU, WWU, etc.) he's probably already eligible for care...but it's worth checking into & USUALLY worth buying supplemental insurance.
If he's at a CC look into private insurance.
My husband has an individual policy through Lifewise (a Blue Cross product) that was inexpensive and good coverage for a healthy guy who basically needs a checkup once a year and then major medical in case of an accident. It's about $100 a month. It doesn't have dental, though.
Have your husband contact his HR department, some companies allow you to buy insurance for your dependent children who are still in college. My daughter is 22 and in college and her plan with us will 'expire' at the end of next year when she turns 23. If our company won't allow us to continue to 'sponsor' her on our insurance and she's still in college, then we will purchase the healthcare plan that the college offers, and they all do. The plans we've seen are affordable, so check it out. By all means, don't let it lapse, as it could be extremely hazardous to his future insurability and coverage of future illnesses.
