After outlining the many challenges that young adults face in dealing with health insurance, here is my first hand experience with everything I have to consider.
After reading how young adults are most likely to be uninsured and how thankfully I can still be covered under my parents health insurance policies – getting PSIP – or Penn Student Insurance Plan seemed like more trouble than it’s worth.
Universities offer their own health insurance plans – it makes sense because here you have an institution that has a population of over 3,000 people. This includes, professors, undergrads, facility workers and graduate students. This is very similar to employee sponsored health insurance. For the University of Pennsylvania, the PSIP is offered specifically through Aetna.
So how much would it cost me if I were to purchase a student insurance plan? The University Rate Annual Premium is $3,012.
I immediately opted out of the plan after submitting paperwork about the HMO health plan I have under my parents’ coverage. No way I would pay that much – when it only cost us $80 a month to have me under my parent’s plan – I could pay for a whole other class with if I spent 3K!
$80 a month x 12 = $960 annual premium staying under my parents plan.
Recently, I received a call from my family saying that with open enrollment - there was a steep rise in our health insurance premiums. The study released by the KFF about rising health insurance premiums made me think they were saying “I told you so”
Now to continue including me on my parent’s health insurance plan – would increase by $220 a month to a whopping $312 a month!
$312 a month x 12 = $3,744 annual premium staying under my parents increased rates.
And suddenly the University rate didn’t look so pricey after all… but wait.
After running a quote for a person my age, gender, with no pre-existing conditions or history of disease and no history of smoking – the cheapest rate here in Philadelphia was a mere $32 a month under a UnitedHealthOne plan.
$32 a month x 12 = $384 annual premium for individual health insurance.
Amazing! I guess this is clearly my best option to get affordable health insurance and even save my family some cash.
Well personally, if I had a choice I would just choose the option “None of the above.” Of course the UnitedHealth One Plan looks very attractive, especially as student loans inflate higher and higher – but that doesn’t cover the whole story.
I will have to make sure that the UnitedHealthOne plan is even a viable option for me – will it be able to cover the same health services as PSIP? If I buy the health plan trying to get this dilemma over with – it might not qualify to opt me out of PSIP, and I wouldn’t want two health plans costing me every year.
According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Student Health Services page here is what is necessary to opt out of mandatory student insurance.
Alternate insurance plans
- must be provided by a company licensed to do business in the United States, with a U.S. claims payment office and a U. S. Phone number.Company must have a process to remit claim costs to providers within the US.
- must provide coverage for both in-patient and out-patient medical care in the Philadelphia area, including but not limited to routine care, specialist office visits, diagnostic testing, imaging and physical therapy.
- must provide for both in-patient and out-patient mental health care in the Philadelphia area.
- may not limit coverage to just Emergency or Urgent medical or mental health care in the Philadelphia area.
- may not exclude coverage for the following:
o Pre-existing conditions (or the plan must have been in effect long enough that any waiting period has passed). ??o Conditions related to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts or counseling, and drug or alcohol counseling/treatment. ??o Congenital and non-congenital medical or mental health conditions.??o Sports injuries, alcohol-related injuries or conditions, pregnancies, eating disorders.? Alternate insurance plans must offer a lifetime maximum benefit of at least $500,000 in coverage for each service.
This is only there “general” summary of what is needed to waive their health plan.
This is a prime example as to why buying health insurance is such a difficult task – young adult or not – I will have to continue doing research to really see what my best option are.
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