Health insurance care plans are a reality
in today’s life especially for students. Most educational institutions in
developed world require students to be covered for healthcare. Studies show
that thirty percent in the United
States for example have a form of health
insurance acquired through their parents help.
Some students however end up dropping their
studies due to lack of finances and they opt to work to pay off their health
insurance expenses. Many students continuously find it difficult to meet these
healthcare insurance expenses as they never cheap. It is however very important
and advantageous for all students to have this medical cover.
There are several plans which offer
students healthcare insurance and for the purpose of this article, we will put
them into three categories; college health insurance, parent’s health care plan
and commercial health insurance plan as they come with unique advantages and
disadvantages.
Parent’s health care plan is effective at
some certain age hence when you reach a certain age, you need to upgrade to an
extra coverage called COBRA which becomes more expensive. To qualify for this a
student needs a certain number of college credit years to qualify for this
cover.
College plan is done through Health
Maintenance Organization or HMO or Preferred Provider Organization or PPO.
These are cheaper plans as compared to commercial health plans but with limited
coverage. These are good for on campus hospital and they cover accident and
health care expenses as long as the students are still registered with such
colleges for the duration of their studies.
Commercial health insurance is usually
company based and terms vary greatly from others and they are facility focused.
Here you get a list of facilities per policy and decide to take the best that
suits you.
Commercial health plan has a temporary
option meant for students staying away from home and is available for 30 days
to six or twelve months. In this plan, a student can find a doctor or hospital
of their choice through taking an indemnity plan. The other choice to go for a
managed care plan with lower premiums than indemnity plans.
In the United States, legal stipulations
are in place which calls for compulsory health care insurance plans for foreign
students. This also comes with a set minimum amount to be availed in case of
emergency evacuation, repatriation of remains and medical treatment. For
international students, the annual cost is between 600 to 700 dollars.
It is therefore clear that due to
emergencies requiring medical attention, students should be covered under some
sort of health care insurance. This has made it a precondition for registration
in colleges for both local and international students.
No comments:
Post a Comment