Here’s the deal: I’m a grad student who has just returned to the USA. I get a stipend each month of around $1,500. There is an optional health insurance provided by the university for grad students which costs $250 a month–a pretty damn big chunk of that stipend. Of course, I could afford it. There also may be a lesser health care provided by the university, which I could register for, and which costs about $150 a month.
Since I’m still under 26, I can get on my parent’s health insurance for one more year (at no cost to them, since they already have another kid), but apparently my parents can’t add me until January, the next “application period.” I’m amazed that kind of bullshit wasn’t already made illegal, but I guess it’s a nice little loophole for the insurance companies. I’m not even sure if I will be able to cancel the insurance mentioned above and only use it till January or not, but assuming that I can, what should I do? (after next year, my university will include my health care in tuition because I will be a TA and thus an employee.)
I’m a healthy 25 year old female, with no pre-existing conditions. I probably should go see a doctor, just to get a check-up, but obviously that’s not going to happen without insurance and I feel just fine at the moment. Even when I get a cold or something, I’m the kind of person who usually just toughs it out (even when I have insurance.) If I get insurance, I’m looking at $600 to $1000 for a little bit of peace of mind. I have a few debts–not unreasonable, but I should pay them back at some point–and I want to travel around the East Coast at some point, and my computer is going to die pretty soon. And if I get this insurance I’ll have to come up with ALL the money upfront, before I even get paid my stipend this first time. Which probably means I’ll have to ask my parents for it or go into debt to a bank. Don’t really like either of those options.
Obviously, this is not meant as a medical question, but one about risk-taking behavior. What would you do?
Call an insurance agent and ask about temporary health insurance. We have a son in his early 20’s and for six months of high deductible insurance it was under $300.00 total, for 6 months. That would keep you protected against a major illness or injury until you can get back on your parent’s insurance.
Indeed. A friend of mine felt healthy 12 hours before she had her appendix removed in emergency surgery. A friend of my wife in college felt fine six months before she died of leukemia. Other than people born with a chronic condition, most people feel healthy right up until they are not.
I would go with SP2263’s suggestion of looking for some short term insurance. I did so a few years ago and it was pretty affordable.
Aren’t basic visits to the Health Center included in your tuition? I had catastrophic coverage in law school, but regardless of whether I had insurance or not, I could visit the Health Center for a sore throat and get, say a throat culture and antibiotics (if needed) for a minimal cost.
Look on the bright side. At your age you have a lifetime ahead of you to pay off the medical bills because you wanted to save a few bucks until January.
I don’t have a car, but yes, I do understand that something terrible can happen at any time. The question is, is the tiny chance of something like that happening really worth $1000? I had catastrophic type insurance for the past year (when I was living in Japan) and that does seem like the best bet. It didn’t even occur to me that I could look at other companies besides my university… a local hospital offers what seems to be a fairly decent plan with a high deductible ($1000). Health care costs are so insanely high that I doubt anything that happened to me would cost less than that, so it seems fair enough.
That’s a good idea. If you don’t mind me asking, did you just call your own health insurance people or did you search the internet or what, to find that kind of deal?
I’m also going to talk to my parents about it–they both, ironically (?) enough, work in health care.
Definitely check out the temporary option - my husband and I did this when we were moving and between jobs. It’s really affordable; I think our 6 month policy cost us something like $180. I don’t remember how I heard of it. Maybe from here? Maybe in a web search? Maybe from a co-worker? Dunno. As for getting it, we just headed to a local State Farm place (this was in Madison, where State Farm is headquartered, so they were a dime a dozen). I’m certain other insurers have similar policies available. There are other agents that aren’t tied to a specific company; if you can find one of these, he or she will probably help you find a good deal.
Everyone is going to say it is, or will exaggerate your likelihood of being struck by lightning, but it isn’t, and you’ll be fine for three and a half months. If you can’t find cheap temporary insurance, waiting will not ensure sudden catastrophe.
Definitely get temporary insurance, I can’t stress this enough. You’re trying to protect yourself from something that is REALLY expensive. You’d be surprised- let’s say you faint/feel dizzy and some good samaritan calls an ambulance to take you to the hospital. Whose gonna have to pay for the $1000 ambulance ride? You are, probably. There’s lots of little things that can happen that can get very expensive very quickly. 3 months is not that bad to pay for peace of mind just in case.
Temporary health insurance is shit. You do lots of dangerous things every day - walk in a busy city, drive a car, etc. You’re not taking a $10k gamble, you’re taking a couple million dollar gamble. Look at the statistics: medical issues (aka crappy or no insurance) are in the top 5 of reasons why people declare bankruptcy.
Seriously, just take the $250 or the $150 policy if you can. You probably pay by the semester anyways, so come January you’ll switch to your parents’ plan.
You probably already checked this, but you might want to check with your parents insurance again.
In my experience (with employer provided insurance) they allow you to make changes upon certain ‘qualifying’ events. For example, my wife lost her job, and I was able to add her to my insurance immediately (instead of waiting for enrollment), because losing her job was a ‘qualifying event.’
So in your case, your life situation changed somehow and resulted in you not having insurance. Whatever that change was, is it possible it would be a ‘qualifying event?’
Have your parents received their notice yet, letting them know that you can re-join their insurance plan? Was their plan effective on or after September 23, 2010, or was it effective beforehand?
Here’s some more information on the extension of dependent coverage provision for the under-26s: Kaiser Document.
Also, it sounds like your parents’ insurance company isn’t one of the early adopters, but just in case the insurance rep was wrong, here’s a list of companies that chose to put the provision into effect early (scroll down): link.
Even if your effective date of coverage won’t be until January 1, 2011, I would still join. If your parents haven’t received their notice yet, they should receive it soon. Make sure you sign up as soon as possible after you get it. I believe the open enrollment period is 30 days.
I called our car insurance agent. For this type of insurance we found it at State Farm and those type of places. The Health Insurance places didn’t even mention it existed.