Changing Student Health Insurance - A New Thanksgiving Tradition

MedSave.com notices a growoing national trend for college students to change health plans over the Thanksgiving holiday and offers some possible explanations.

(PRWEB) November 25, 2004 -- MedSave.com is gearing up for a lesser-known Thanksgiving tradition. Thousands of college students change their health insurance plans during their trip home to see parents this week. From the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the following weekend, online and telephone requests from students and their parents have come in at a record pace. This trend has grown each year since the enrollment firms launch in 1997. Despite efforts to take more calls and process more applications, the firm still expects a backlog of business on Thanksgiving weekend. Other enrollment firms report similar trends. MedSave.com focuses on low cost health insurance, so it serves a higher percentage of students than some other enrollment firms. In addition, students are more likely than adults to enroll for a health plan online rather than traditional paper methods.

The exact reasons for this national trend are not known but Tony Novak, OnlineAdviser for MedSave.com, speculates on three possibilities:

First, some college students who enrolled in the colleges on-campus health plan in September now realize that they want to be treated by other medical providers outside the college or need health insurance while traveling and visiting parents and friends back home.

Second, parents who covered their college students on an employer-provided family health plan found that there may be too many loopholes in the coverage to be worthwhile. The nations largest health plans pay a lower level of benefits for out-of-network charges" that affects college students living far away from home.

Finally, it might simply be that this is the first serious conversation about family financial issues that families have had since their child left home in September.

Since student health plans and short-term health insurance plans at MedSave.com cover all charges equally -- regardless of the location or medical provider -- these are an attractive option by comparison. Since students as a group are a healthy bunch, the cost of this coverage is minimal.

Novak estimates that the national average health insurance cost for a college student costs is about $900. The disadvantage of student health insurance plans, he points out, is that ordinary small expenses like over-the-counter drugs and minimal doctors expenses are not covered. Most students elect insurance with a $500 or $1000 deductible to keep the premium cost down. Even with out-of-pocket costs added to health insurance premiums, the cost of providing health care to students is only a fraction of the cost of covering other adults.

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