Children and Students:

Health Care Coverage

It is critical to have health insurance coverage for children living at home, as well as those away at college. Finding the right health insurance plan for your needs and price range takes some footwork, but with guidance, it can be done.

Health Insurance For Children

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), also known as Title XXI, was passed by Congress in 1997. This program was created to help deal with the growing number of children in the U.S. who were living without health insurance. Many families had annual incomes that were over the limit for Medicaid, but not nearly enough to afford a private policy.

With state coverage, the family is charged no more than 5% of their gross annual income, with some receiving it at no cost. The coverage varies from state to state, but all state health insurance programs are required to cover at a minimum well baby and well child physicals, all required immunizations, and any emergency services these children require.

If your children are already covered under any health insurance policy that you have, they will not be eligible for the state's coverage.

If you don't qualify for state coverage, do some research before you apply for health insurance for your child. It may be more cost effective to have a family policy with all your children covered than to have an individual policy on each child. Of course, if you have only 1 child, it may work the other way around.

Health Insurance For Students

Although most universities have a health care clinic where the student can go for routine physical ailments, like sore throats, it is not advisable to depend on this as their only source of health care. All students need to have some other type of health insurance plan that will cover unexpected medical problems, like visits to the emergency room or surgeries.

There are several options available to students for health insurance coverage. The best possible choice is to have them covered on their parents' policy, even while away at school. Most family group health insurance plans will cover children as long as they are actively enrolled in school. Check with your insurance agent to see what stipulations there are that might affect your child's coverage.

If you find that the student will need an individual health insurance policy, there are insurance companies that cater to this market. It's good to do some research, though. You need to know the maximum amount of coverage, what your deductible will be, and what will and won't be covered. If your child is going to school outside the country, make sure to find out if additional coverage will be needed.

Having proper student health insurance coverage will help make your child's college experience safer. It will definitely ease everyone's minds.