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expatdxb
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 05:58 am |
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Coming from out of the country my son, and most of his friends, must buy the school life insurance. Especially in Massachusetts.
The basic that is offered is $100,000 per illness/incident but it is upgradable to $250,000 max for an additional $500/year. I can't for the life of me find a cap on the amount per year although I am sure it is there somewhere...
Should we upgrade?
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mominva
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 06:07 am |
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Upgrade if you can afford it. Prolonged hospitalizations are costly.
If your child suffers a traumatic brain injury in a motor vehicle crash, you will soon surpass the max.
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Chedva
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 12:00 pm |
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I'm confused - your title says health insurance but your post says life insurance. Which is it?
If it's life insurance, you don't need the upgrade, since you don't need to replace his income should the worst happen.
If it's health insurance - MA law requires that everyone be covered by health insurance. However, it is my understanding that a student covered under his parent's policy is considered covered. Is your son covered under your policy? If so, there may be no need to upgrade (or, indeed, to buy the insurance in the first place - check with the school directly). If he is not covered by another policy, then I agree - definitely upgrade the insurance.
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expatdxb
Member
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 12:08 pm |
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| Sorry it is health insurance. and no he is not covered as we don't live in the states. So, I will upgrade.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 11:19 pm |
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| I'm not sure if you are talking about a policy purchased on your own or through Tufts, but generally, if he is young and healthy, the basic policy through the college will probably suffice. If there's a chance you may want to have him medically evacuated back to Dubai if he is seriously injured or ill, you may want to look into medical evacuation policies - they run from about $200 a year on up. But, that is more so that you could get him closer to home if you needed to.
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expatdxb
Member
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Posted: Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 01:01 am |
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The Health Insurance policy comes through Tufts, and is required unless covered under an existing policy, which he will not be. The general policy is fine and works off of referrsl from the health center.
They offer the ability to increase the hospitalization from a max per incident/illness of $100,000 to $250,000. It also covers him while travelling internationally for the full calendar year, and includes medivac to the US if needed.
In all honesty, if something happened we would be more likely to come to him. Dubai is growing and quite shiny and new, but health care can still be spotty!
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 02:18 am |
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That's what I thought you'd say, but just thought I'd mention it just in case. 
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Lupine
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Posted: Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 08:06 pm |
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I'd go for the increased amount, or perhaps look elsewhere for an umbrella policy that would provide an extra layer of coverage.
It doesn't happen often -- and with luck never to any of our kids -- but there are some kids who end up with major accidents or illnesses, and skimpy coverage limits leave them out in the cold.
I also wouldn't trust a college's package unless you've read the detail. I recently looked at Connecticut College's health plan, and the maximum amounts they would pay for various services appeared to be less than 10% of what prevailing charges are in Colorado, and Connecticut isn't a cheaper locale. People think their kids are covered, and they are for all of the small things, but I personally buy insurance to cover the big problems, and Connecticut's policy certainly didn't do that. Maybe Tufts is much better, but I'd take the time to read it and make sure.
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expatdxb
Member
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Posted: Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 08:24 pm |
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Thanks for the advice. I have read the whole policy and it seems quite comprehensive. It is tied up with the health service, where they are to go for a first visit, and if needed and get a referral then there is a minmal co payment, etc.
At some point, I would like S1 to take ownership of this, read the policy and understand what it is about, but, well, actually I am still having trouble getting him to go through his clothes and stuff; decide what he's taking and we leave in 10 days! But that is probably a discussion for a different thread....
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mmaah
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Posted: Fri Jul 4th, 2008 02:31 pm |
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hmm...not sure why I happened to read this thread but I can't resist responding to your comment on hoping he'd read the policy. I'd say just go with hoping he might think about the clothes...At this stage the male brain is still so intermittently offline that it is likely a waste of time and worthy conflict. And shipping the clothes items would be way expensive if he starts thinking later......I made my son quite miserable with similar efforts when he was taking a gap year. Just recently, when packing up some things from my daughter's first venture abroad, I came across some remnants of the prior venture and it just made me smile. He never did lots of things I thought were so important and he managed everything just fine. As long as they know how to politely ask questions when they DO realize they need help/information, they manage. And, university health clinics are used to the late adolescent male brain and what it has not absorbed..In any case, good luck with the launching phase.
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expatdxb
Member
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Posted: Fri Jul 4th, 2008 07:18 pm |
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| LOL! You're right, I was actually thinking of him hopefully reading it somewhere in his second year!
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Wstrdg
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Posted: Mon Jul 7th, 2008 09:05 pm |
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a little bit off topic, but not much:
this would be a good time, too, to talk to your son about how to access health care on the university campus. for example, my genius kid suffered with strep throat for the last week of finals (too busy to go to the clinic, mom) and then collapsed after his last final concluded at 10 pm on a friday night. guess what? surprise: the clinic was closed!
so friends of genius take him to the emergency room at the university med school. and he discovers that since he is not bleeding profusely from a knife wound or gunshot (US emergency rooms are very dramatic in big US cities on the weekend nights), he gets to sit there for many hours (triage, you know). plus, it costs about five times what it would have cost at the clinic (which closed for the semester while he was taking that last final).
especially if you are from outside of the US, talk about choices. i think it's a great idea to walk your kid to the clinic if you visit the campus, and show them how to make an appt, find procedures for a walk-in visit, get a Rx refill, etc. (on the other hand, we had this chat about a year ago, and did it do any good???)
well, experience IS the best teacher. and he's all better now. and he says it won't happen again!
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Mon Jul 7th, 2008 09:27 pm |
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Very good points, Wstrdg. It is a good idea to stop by the health center when you are dropping your child off or visiting campuses and get the specific details of what they provide on campus, what their hours are, and how they make the decision to make referrals if necessary. Another good question to ask is whether the school will provide any sort of transportation for the student if they need to go to the hospital.
I also think it is useful to pay a visit to the campus security office and ask them to show you and your child on a map any trouble spots in the local area to avoid. My husband did this at our daughter's school, and he got some very good information from the security director on safety, both on and off campus. Even a bucolic looking campus can have its issues, and most kids don't think about this until it is too late.
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Canadian
Member
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Posted: Tue Jul 22nd, 2008 10:13 pm |
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Ignorance-Is-Not-Quite-Bliss Canadian here.........
My son's school policy offers $250,000 coverage, and they knew nothing about upgrades. This wouldn't seem adequate if God forbid he were to get into a bad accident.
It has been so wonderful living in a country where $54/mo covers everything, but I don't even know how to think about what coverage he might need or where to get it.
Does $250,000 sound good enough, and if not, any advice appreciated. I can get the med-evac here, but might prefer for him to stay in the US depending on what kind of treatment might be necessary.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Thu Jul 24th, 2008 04:19 am |
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Canadian, These articles probably won't answer your question, but they may provide some perspective:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/081707_health_insurance.pdf
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20080608_The_cost_of_hospital_care_is_difficult_to_pin_down.html
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_ID=9413&page=article
You probably need to take the level of risk into account in making the decision about how much is enough. Young people have a lower risk of long term health problems, but a higher risk of accidents that may require medical care. Also consider at what point you'd pull your son back home for care there if he became seriously ill, or needed long term rehabilitation or care.
In our case, we have a policy through my husband's work for the kids. Our daughter can only receive emergency medical treatment and related emergency hospital care through the policy as there are no providers on our plan in Wisconsin. So, we do purchase the school insurance with a relatively small cap to cover more routine care she might need at school. Of course, now we are trying to figure out what type of policy, and for how much, she'll need for studying abroad next spring. Decisions, decisions.
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Canadian
Member
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Posted: Thu Jul 24th, 2008 06:44 am |
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Wow, confusing and pretty scary info if you are underinsured! Thanks, Carolyn.
It is definitely accidents that I'm concerned about for my high impact athlete.
I'll call the school's insurance provider and find out exactly what they mean by "repatriation & med-evac" as those are probably the most important issues.......or at least the ones I can identify!
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Lupine
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Posted: Thu Jul 24th, 2008 01:58 pm |
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For anyone who is concerned about getting a child back home (wherever home is) in the event of an accident or serious illness, you ought to at least investigate MedJetAssist. It is not medical insurance -- but it is absolutely certain air evacuation coverage that allows you to specify exactly what hospital your child should be transferred to -- whether that's a hospital at home or a hospital somewhere else that is better suited for the particular problem. You decide, not an insurance company. If your child is hospitalized, the evacuation is covered -- no arguments about whether they "need" evacuation. They also have a plan for students studying in the US who might want evacuation back to their home country, and for US students studying abroad.
This isn't cheap, but I have a brother in the air evacuation business, and he's seen some nightmares with insurance companies delaying evac while people are seriously ill or injured in hospitals without appropriate specialists or equipment, and more problems when the evac is only authorized to the nearest suitable hospital, even if it isn't anywhere near home. (You may not want your kid evacuated to a hospital in Houston if you live in California.) They bought MedJetAssist coverage when their D went on Semester at Sea.
The various collegiate plans are described at
http://www.medjetassist.com/plans/collegiate.aspx
there may also be AAA discounts available -- not sure if that applies to the collegiate plans, though.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Thu Jul 24th, 2008 07:11 pm |
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| Lupine, Thank you so much for posting this, as it has saved me from having to search for med evacuation insurance for my daughter when she studies abroad in the spring.
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Northeastmom
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Posted: Thu Jul 24th, 2008 08:42 pm |
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| Medjetassist is great information to know about. I know a young man who had a pretty severe burn injury. He could not be treated at our local teaching hospital and needed to get to a burn unit. His insurance coverage would not cover flying him to the burn unit, but would only pay for ambulance transport. Parents were given a choice between paying for the flight, or having him take a very long ride by ambulance. He was in so much agony, and could not imagine riding in an ambulance to the other hospital because every bump in the road would have been agonizing pain. The flight was over 10k out of pocket. Last edited on Thu Jul 24th, 2008 08:42 pm by Northeastmom
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