College student with pre-existing condition
originally posted: 11/22/2006 reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If you notice an error or are in doubt, please send a new question by email or ask for an update. Email asktony@tonynovak.com.
Q: Our son, age 34, has been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia. He is a full-time college student in Florida and we are financially supporting him. Can he get medical insurance? We're willing to pay for it.
A: Yes, high quality inexpensive insurance is available to college students and it is common for parents to pay for it. Almost all colleges require proof of insurance as a condition of enrollment. However, some students do not maintain this coverage so the risk of uncovered medical expenses remains. The big issue here is that most insurance policies exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions. It would not likely be worthwhile to pursue a policy that does cover pre-existing medical conditions due to the limitations of those policies. So at this point consider the current problem to be an out-of-pocket expense but get insurance in force now to make sure that it does not happen again. The most popular health insurance policies for Florida college students is American Health Shield, Simple STM and Secure STM. All are available for online enrollment at FreedomBenefits.net on a semester by semester basis. The average cost is about $70 per month for college students.
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