Sending your child off to college has enough challenges; college health insurance doesn’t have to be one of them.

In-state college

Your child can either be on your family plan (until they are 26) or you can get them their own policy. Some colleges have special plans for their students that make sense, and you can choose from three different options: Buy a short term insurance plan to keep costs low and cover them for up to a year at a time. This may be the lowest cost option but it does not cover pre-existing conditions or preventative care. Choose a catastrophic plan, which may be ideal for healthy young college-age people, or select a traditional insurance plan, which conforms to the ACA guidelines.

If you set up your child’s finances properly and choose the right strategies, you may even be able to insure your child get’s excellent insurance with a subsidy, but you may need to be creative to accomplish this. Whichever way you go, please make sure you do something to protect your child.

Out-of-state college

Going to an out of state college may be more complex because many Florida Plans provide only emergency coverage out of a local area. You may be best off applying for some policy that will cover your child more completely in that state. Since insurance laws and policies differ from state to state it is difficult to discuss the guidelines that apply in another jurisdiction.

To ask specific questions about insuring your college-age students or to ask questions about ACA, call Bill Kohn at 954-332-9768 or email [email protected].