Please get yourself something; some kind of temporary high-deductible policy sounds like your best bet, and shouldn’t be expensive. I once tried to save a few bucks by not doing that for the one month I didn’t have coverage at a new job (my old employer was too small - 8 people - for me to be eligible for COBRA coverage). I broke my leg on Day 28, and the first 48 hours of coverage until the new work policy kicked in cost me about $4500 - and that was in 1997! If it hadn’t been for the work policy covering preexisting conditions, I would have been out about $100k and had to declare bankruptcy - for a broken leg. (OK, it wasn’t an ordinary broken leg; it ended up requiring 4 rounds of surgery and contless hours of physical therapy, and even so, I’m probably an ankle replacement candidate down the road. But all the same, no auto accidents, head injuries, etc. were involved - it was just one of those freaky things.)
Also, if one of those random things happens in the intervening 3.5 months, when you go on your parents’ covering in January, it may be classified as a “pre-existing condition”, and you’re screwed. I know the new laws are supposed to have some effect on that, but I wouldn’t bet my health on it. If you have no gap in coverage, they have less standing to reject you.
Get something cheap just to cover an emergency. It’s kind of like homeowner’s insurance - the chances are very low that you’ll need it, but once you do, it’s huge.
That student health plan sounds ludicrous. For 12 months, that’s like 2.5k. When I was a student, it was available for 400/semester.
This, or some other temporary insurance, is almost certainly your best bet until you can get back on your parents’ insurance. Could you go without insurance for a few months and be fine? Almost certainly. But on the off chance that something does go wrong, you are looking at tens of thousands of dollars in charges–and that would be a pretty light bill.
When I was 25, I was a healthy young woman with no prior medical conditions. I’d never even broken a bone. And then, out of nowhere, I had a pulmonary embolism–a blood clot in my lung. If I hadn’t had insurance, I would have had one hell of a bill to pay off; and that’s with me only in the hospital for a couple of days, and my hematologist *giving *me about $2k worth of drugs (a two-week supply) when my Rx insurance wouldn’t pay for any of them until my separate Rx deductible was met.
Under normal circumstances, you can’t make any changes to your plan until annual enrollment. However, in the case of a “qualifying event” such as marriage or a birth, you can make changes regardless of what time of year it is. You should definitely contact the insurance company to verify whether or not you can be added now–moving back into the country sounds to me like it might be a QE. And if the insurance provider still says no, check to see if the organization that the parent who carries the insurance works for has an employee advocacy service who might be able to verify what qualifies as a QE, and/or lean on the insurance company.
Unfortunately, in the U.S., health insurance *is *pretty much synonymous with health care.
IIRC, it’s only changing in 2011 for children under 19. The exclusions aren’t eliminated for everyone until 2014. It’s possible that there may also be different timelines for grandfathered vs. non-grandfathered plans.
I beg to differ. There are lots of people in the US that get health care without having insurance. That’s part of the problem that has caused the rising costs of health care in the US and what has led to the passage of the recent legislation requiring us all to obtain health insurance.
Care that bankrupts you cannot be said to be care that you truly have access to.
What does that have to do with the difference between “health care” and “health insurance”? They are still not the same. Nice try in making this a debate about the recent health insurance legislation.
Get the temporary insurance. If you find yourself needing a full policy after school then it is important that there isn’t a gap in your coverage.
looks like 6 months of high deductable insurance is your best bet. Get covered. We got our daughter coverage in the same situation. cost about $400 for us. Our regular insurance agent was able to find a policy. And remember one reason for those crazy rules about waiting until January is to keep people from waiting until they feel sick and then running out to buy insurance. But if you show continuous coverage, you stand a better chance at the next life style change.
You are 25 and you want your mom and dad to continue to carry you? As someone else said, there are affordable health insurance plans out there. And there are a ton of options to help you raise your income to afford it. Such as; roommate situations, a second job, the aforementioned loan from your parents. Not fun or comfortable maybe, but at least grownup.
And as others have said do NOT “go naked”. I was fine and dandy until my gall bladder gave up the ghost a few years ago and I had to have an emergency surgery. That in turn started a snowball effect with some other health issues. Thank goodness I had health insurance. Unlike 8 years ago when I seriously shattered a few bones in my leg and am still paying off the surgeries.
Why would I pay $250 a month when my parents can add me to their coverage for free? :rolleyes: Trust me, my parents will get plenty of their money back from me when they are old and doddering. Plus I already have a roommate and I am not allowed to get a job when receiving a fellowship. And it’s only for half a year.
Thanks everyone–I appreciate the advice. I’ve decided to go with a temporary high deductible plan from the local hospital. It only costs about $60 compared to the $250 or $150 plans and I can keep it for just 4 months, instead of 6, like the school ones. 
But your lifetime might be only six months because you didn’t get an examination until it was too late.
But that’s ok – the best way to die is heavily in debt.
Good luck with the HDHP, Tanaqui! Hopefully you won’t need it at all.
I gave concrete information and suggestions in reponse to the OP. You gave… an attempt to nitpick the difference between “health care” and “health insurance.” So, which one of us do you think deserves your sarcastic “nice try”?
Just dropped by to say … I don’t know the answer!
It’s a gambling decision. One way you’ll probably end up hundreds of dollars richer but possibly … end up very sorry.
What if you have little or no savings; does the Emergency Room then get your future earnings? Can you “hide” your savings? You’d want these answers before making your decision.
Sounds like quite the idea for a prank on an uninsured person. 
Is this scenario valid? If so, do Americans suspect that maybe their system is imperfect?
I live overseas, uninsured, have had some procedures including a coronary stent for far FAR less than what insurance premiums in U.S. would have added up to. I’ve no plans to visit America: minor medical incidents would cost hundreds of dollars. Another stent, which would cost at least ten times what I paid here at a superb hospital used by American companies, would definitely “spoil my day.”
$250 per month for healthcare? How can anyone in America afford to live?
I’m guessing you’re being sarcastic. $250 is unfortunately a student rate. The HDHP I had with my husband cost us $750 a month, even with a $5,000 deductible. So we were paying that, plus the $450 a month my prescription of seizure meds cost me while we were paying off the deductible. So about $1150 a month at least, $400 of which was one prescription (not including “unnecessary” meds like birth control and prescribed supplements to keep my seizure meds from destroying my liver or a baby’s spinal cord should I become pregnant).
Counting taking the Bar exam and waiting for results (a six-month process) it was nearly a year after my student insurance ran out before I was eligible for benefits through a job. I got the cheapest health insurance I could find–80-20 coverage with a $1000 deductible. Thanks to that, I paid only $6500 for my appendectomy, instead of nearly $30,000.
Get the insurance.