Full Time Student Health Insurance

It may be easier for full-time students than it is for part-timers to find inexpensive health insurance. Many plans offer substantial price breaks for those who can prove their full-time status. Some insurers feel that a full course load is a sufficient enough financial burden to justify discounts for students. Moreover, it is their hope that once these collegians have graduated and started earning paychecks that they'll stick with their plans and become lifelong policy-holders.

The full-time versus part-time debate can get sticky, however. Often it is part-time students who are making the biggest sacrifices in order to get their educations. Some are forced to work part-time or even full-time jobs in addition to completing their regular course work. Even if this is only one or two credit hours a term, juggling this much responsibility can pose an enormous challenge. Now, to make matters worse, they must be penalized by insurance companies as well for carrying what is perceived to be a lesser academic load.

Obtaining Care

A good number of students opt to enroll in their universities' own health plans, which are often cheaper than ordinary private policies. The reason for this is that schools frequently contract with providers in the area, either at the university's hospital or in private practices located in town. In this respect schools function much like their own managed care networks, referring students to specialists within the area.

Students who agree to see physicians inside this network can save vast sums of money but may be left with a co-pay or co-insurance out of their own pockets. Or, students may wish to enroll in a plan and then see providers of their own choosing, even those who are out of network. As with policy-holders in traditional PPOs, however, these students may be forced to pay a higher share of their own expenses for the privilege of moving out of network.