If you are graduating in May, you probably aren’t starting work until June at the earliest. And if you’ve read the fine print of your employment contract, you might have noticed that your health insurance might not kick in until a month after you start. Mine is like that-and I’m assuming many have the same problem. Your health insurance under your parents usually stops covering you when you graduate, or if you have college health insurance that ends as well when you graduate. So what do you do for those two months that you are not covered? Just shrug it off and hope you don’t get sick? Hope that you don’t get into an accident for two months? This isn’t a smart risk to take- but you have some options.
You can either purchase short-term health insurance or a COBRA. Short-term health insurance is exactly that- insurance for unforeseen illness or a medical emergency. It does not cover routine medical exams, and is only insurance in case you come down with a virus or get into an accident. A COBRA (short for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) is continuation coverage of your current health insurance, which includes routine exams. This is generally more expensive than short term health insurance because it covers more and because you are taking on the entire premium yourself. Thus, you are paying the amount your parents used to pay plus what your employer (or in our case our parents employer) paid toward the premium. When you graduate, you technically lose your “dependant child status” under your parents insurance and you are no longer covered.
Short-term health insurance is usually for 30 to 180 days, but can be for up to one year and is a better option if you don’t need any routine care in the months after graduation. To get quotes on short term insurance, try gradmed.com or einsurance.com for policy and rate comparisons. The deductibles on short-term insurance are usually much higher than a Cobra ($250 vs. $40 or so) but remember you will be paying much higher premiums. Another note of caution is that they do not cover pre-existing conditions or pregnancy care.
Health Insurance: Bridging the gap between college and work
Labels:
health insurance,
medical benefits,
personal finance,
risk
2 comments:
Health Insurance isn't something most college students think about. But once you graduate, it’s a different story. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a job with benefits waiting for you when you graduate, you'll probably spend some time scrambling for insurance.
Recent graduates without health insurance are often stereotyped as “Young Invincibles” who’d rather buy an expensive stereo system than opt for health insurance, but for many the choice isn’t between luxuries and coverage. Many of these young people need to make a choice between expensive health insurance and, say, buying a car—which they need to commute to work—or living on their own, which for some is non-negotiable. In addition, many recent grads have huge college loan debt, and can’t manage the large monthly payments for both debt and insurance.
source: http://www.distance-education.org/Articles/Health-Insurance-For-College-Students-and-Recent-Grads--A-Look-at-Your-Options-75.html
(I think the above comment is an advertisement.)
I wanted to point out to you that GradMed doesn't allow preexisting conditions AND resets your coverage every time your period (maximum 6 months) ends -- so if you have it and you get sick, you end up with no insurance (because they won't reinsure you if you have a condition) and no way to get insurance (because nobody else will, either).
Read more about it on my blog:
http://publicoption.blogspot.com/2009/09/gradmed.html
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