As students graduate from college, they might need one more crash course: Health insurance 101.
You can be in excellent health and still get hurt while mountain biking or in a car accident, she noted, adding: “You don’t want to be saddled with a huge bill.”
Madeline Thomas gets that, although perhaps her major is part of the reason she’s up on health insurance issues.
Thomas, 21, expects to graduate from the University of Minnesota Duluth in December with a major in health care management. The Lakeville, Minn., native said her goal is an administrative job in a big-city hospital. But regardless of what sort of work she’s able to land right out of college, she’s determined to have health insurance.
“I just know a lot of freak things can happen to people,” Thomas said. “I’d be too scared to take the risk (of going without insurance).”
Some college students might have to make their own choices about health insurance for the first time after graduating, said Kim Dauner, an assistant professor of economics at UMD. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, young adults can take advantage of their parents’ health insurance until age 26. But some parents can’t afford to pay to cover their young adult children, Dauner said.
Students at UMD and the College of St. Scholastica are required to have insurance; Lake Superior College students are not, Peterson said.
The University of Wisconsin system doesn’t require students to be insured but strongly encourages it, said Dawn D. Schulze, coordinator for student health and counseling at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. International students and athletes are required to have insurance, she added.
At UMD, a health insurance plan can be purchased through the school, Dauner said. But after a three-month grace period following graduation, that insurance plan expires.
Students also can purchase health insurance via the University of Wisconsin, Schulze said, but only about 10 students at UWS chose that option this academic year.
Neither Thomas nor her parents had health insurance in the pre-Obamacare days, she said. When she registered for classes without health insurance, she automatically was enrolled in a student health benefit plan provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield through the University of Minnesota.
“One of the good things is that your financial aid covers the cost of it,” Thomas said.
That’s not true across the bridge at UWS, Schulze said, but she’s hoping it soon will be.
She found out how good her coverage was when she had knee surgery recently, she said. But she might turn to the marketplace for insurance when her current plan ends in August.
This year’s enrollment period — for MNsure, healthcare.gov and the other online health exchanges set up across the country under the Affordable Care Act long — has ended. But loss of coverage after graduation is considered a “qualifying event,” Peterson said. Enrollment is open anytime an individual experiences such an event.
That also would be true if a student is no longer covered under his or her parents’ plan, Peterson added.
Also, she said, enrollment is always open for someone who qualifies for a public program, such as Medical Assistance (Minnesota’s Medicaid program) or Minnesota Care, an additional program for residents who lack access to affordable health care.
“If you’ve graduated and you don’t have a job or you have a part-time job, it’s really worth checking into MNsure,” Peterson said.
Although Thomas said she views health insurance as a must, her job status might affect the level of insurance she chooses. “If I’m not making a lot of money, I probably wouldn’t go for the best coverage,” she said.
Students who — like Thomas — are in the health care management program tend to be more savvy than their peers about health insurance, Dauner said. Many students may have never given the subject any thought, especially if they are covered under their parents’ plan.
Other young adults — whether college students or not — may have considered health insurance and decided they couldn’t afford it. Dauner has done studies about uninsured young adults asking them to rank health insurance compared with other priorities. Typically, she said, it ranks fourth behind rent, food and education.
But college graduates who don’t have health insurance are not only gambling that they won’t need to pay for significant care, Dauner said. They’ll also face tax penalties next year.
“Those penalties are going to keep going up,” Dauner said.
In the Northland, students — and anyone else — who want help figuring out their health insurance options can connect with a “navigator” by calling the United Way 2-1-1 number, or (800) 543-7709 on cellphones, Peterson said.
Dauner said she’s glad when students approach her about health insurance questions, and she wishes it would happen more often. Students need to become educated consumers and understand such concepts as looking at the premiu, the out-of-pocket maximum and the deductible, she said.
Schulze agreed, saying that some students haven’t gotten a good deal from the health exchange.
“What I’m finding that a lot of students … have some high deductibles that I think are outrageous,” she said.
When asked what she would tell fellow students, Thomas said: “Just to do some research on their own, on what the options are. Because there are so many options for young people.”
Date: May 19, 2015