Students struggle to keep health insurance
On college campuses, there are lots of different reasons to stress out. The freshman fifteen, the homesickness, the exams, girls, papers, and everything in between are all acceptable reasons for students to freak out a little bit. These days, they have something new to worry about, and it might surprise you. Most kids will never think about their health insurance coverage before the age of twenty, but many are being forced to because of the restrictions on how they are treated. These days, the reality of falling off of their parents' medical insurance plan is very apparent and it is impacting more than just those kids who decide to stop pursuing their college education altogether.
The problem for many of today's college students is that they are being put in the middle and they are being asked to make difficult choices regarding their finances and their future. The changing nature of today's college world dictates that most people don't even think about graduating in four years. That is a thing of the past and the new college student is being asked to tackle a whole lot more. In addition to the typical course load, many of today's students are being asked to work, perform college-required internships, and travel abroad to gain experience in their major area. Because of these things, many kids just need a break every now and then.
A break isn't possible for most of them, though. Student health insurance regulations make it so that if a kid takes one semester off of college to clear his or her head, they are no longer allowed to stay on their parents' health insurance bill. For many kids and the involved parents, this can be a devastating consequence to something that is very minor. The costs associated with getting a new insurance policy can be burdensome and in many cases, students will just go long without the coverage. As one might suspect, this can create some interesting and difficult challenges for students, parents, and even the schools, which get a black eye because of the entire ordeal.
The student health insurance regulations are in place to make sure that kids don't hang around on their parents' plan long after they leave the house. As long as they are in college, they are able to count on the bill of their folks. But the implication here is that when a student drops below 12 hours (full time requirement at most universities), he no longer has medical insurance. Even if a kid drops a course and falls down to part-time status for as little as a few weeks, he is now out on his own as far as the medical insurance companies are concerned. As you might guess, this is causing a whole new level of stress for students that are already up against enough of it.
Because of the sheer need of the thing, student health insurance options are becoming more readily available. Special plans have now come on the market for kids who have to take a year or so off before going to graduate school, as that temporary hiatus takes them off of their parents' policy for good. The problem continues to get worse and not better, as more and more kids head towards a degree in what many would consider a non-traditional path.
Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 9:19 PM by Carol Ann