Health Insurance for College Students
Chances are, as a college student, one of the last things you think you’ll need is special health insurance for students. After all, you’re young and fit. Other than the occasional cold or flu, what could possibly go wrong with your health?
You may have student health insurance through your parent’s policy, or could be included as part of your college tuition. However, it’s your responsibility to check that your health insurance coverage is at least adequate, if not fully comprehensive (covering all and any eventualities).
The risk of not having student health insurance
If you make it through college only needing an occasional dental checkup or doctor’s visit, you might get away without having any student health insurance. However, you only need to contract one illness that’s difficult to treat, like one that requires multiple visits to the doctor’s office, to quickly run up some expensive bills and debt.
Medical fees in the U.S. are expensive, and a lack of proper health insurance can really affect your wealth. For example, if you’re uninsured (or underinsurance) and require hospital treatment while you’re a student, the cost could be astronomical. It could drain any savings you have, or worse, pile huge debt upon you before you even graduate. If you contract a serious medical problem, the most important thing is getting healthy again using the best treatment available, so ensuring that you have adequate health insurance as a college student is really in your own best interest.
Short term health insurance for college students
There are two types of health insurance policies you can buy: – long-term or short-term coverage. A long-term health insurance plan is the type of plan that is better suited for graduates and those who have started their career. This is because long-term health insurance is designed for people who don’t receive health insurance as part of their work benefits package. Long-term health insurance usually has an annual and monthly premium calculated on the assumption that it’s a policy you intend to commit to for more than four years.
By contrast, short-term health insurance policies are ideal for college students. Typically designed in six to twelve month increments, you can buy health insurance for college students for as little as just $30 a month, or even less, if you pay in advance. Of course, a short-term policy won’t provide you with comprehensive medial insurance, but it will protect you from the expenses associated with any serious or emergency medical needs, so you can be attend to without worrying about the cost. If you’re a sports fanatic, you may want to consider a student health insurance policy extension that includes sports accident insurance, to cover any sports-related injuries.
Keep yourself healthy
Of course, even people with expensive health insurance policies hope that they’ll never need to make a claim. Like most people, they would rather simply be healthy.
There are several things you can do as a college student to avoid filing a claim against your student health insurance, which could help to keep your student health insurance premium down, too. Eat healthy, and avoid drinking too much alcohol and smoking. Getting enough sleep and exercising regularly are also ways that can help maintain your good health. Especially if you are a freshman college student, these types of things can ‘fly out of the window’ as you experience your first taste of freedom. However, too much junk food, late nights and excessive alcohol consumption are not good for anyone and, as we all know, smoking can literally kill you!
It may be tempting to avoid the expense of a student health insurance, especially if you’re on a tight student budget. However, the cost of being personally responsible for enormous medical bills can easily and quickly far exceed the annual cost of a simple short-term health insurance policy from an experienced and reputable insurance company, purposefully designed for college students. .