Affordable Student Health Insurance

The quest for affordable health insurance is often made doubly difficult for college students, who already have the considerable cost of their own educations to worry about. In many cases, parents cannot afford to send their children to college, leaving students to finance their own degrees. Add to this the fierce competition for need-based and merit-based scholarships, and it's no wonder so many high-schoolers jump straight into the job market to start earning money.

The last thing most financially strapped students worry about while away at college is their health insurance. Selling health insurance policies to students going 100,000 dollars into debt for a private four-year education or an advanced degree can be next to impossible. The problem is, should these students come down with a bad strain of influenza or some other protracted illness, the cost of that education skyrockets.

A Difficult Choice

It's truly unfortunate that so many students feel compelled to choose between their health and their education. Enough resources ought to be available to help ensure all superior students go to college and have (at the very least) minimal health insurance. Since, however, there's no indication that the cost of college will decrease anytime soon, odds are that students will have to seek more affordable health insurance instead.

The good news is that colleges and universities are well aware of the problems faced by uninsured or under-insured students and do what they can to help. Some colleges offer free health consulting on campus, while others allow students to purchase discounted policies partially subsidized by the institution. Lastly, there are schools that contract with local university hospitals to help defray the high cost of health care. All of these represent viable options for cash-strapped collegians.