Insurance for Students in Florida
A study on the advantages and disadvantages of short
term insurance and coverage for the undergraduate population
of Florida
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL - Each spring and summer, several
hundred thousand young-adults, enrolled private, state
and community colleges and universities nationwide descend
on Florida's beaches with the accuracy of migratory
birds-often leaving behind the medical benefits their
various schools supply them with, but without having
taken steps to provide for their potential medical needs
while they're guests in our state. Thousands of the
college students heading for FL this summer will be
making changes to their health insurance policies during
their trip. From the moment when Panama City and Daytona
Beach experience the opening salvos of Spring Break
to the day when Miami's South Beach cleans up the mess
left over from Labor Day Weekend, requests from students
and student's parents will be flooding in to local insurers
at a record pace.
But, it's hardly a secret that both student and travel
health insurance policies are becoming increasingly
difficult for consumers to sort through, and despite
the efforts of many of Florida's neighborhood firms
to take more of those calls and process more temporary
insurance applications, most firms still expect temporary
insurance backlogs over the course of the spring to
summer season. Many local indemnity brokers have reported
the trend to their online counterparts and in response,
the web-based arms of firms such as The Agency for Health
Insurance have focused on providing for short-term gaps
in health insurance by offering collegiate Floridians
and visitors to the states beaches alike low cost travel
health insurance alternatives. So far, they've wound
up serving the temporary health needs of an even higher
percentage of students than their peers.
In general, students have been far more likely their
parents to research then enroll in a health care benefits
plan via an online marketplace rather than via traditional
methods. Here in FL, no one seems to know exactly why,
but we can speculate by offering these possibilities:
First, many parents who previously covered their college-age
children with employer-sponsored family health benefits
plans have likely found that there are often far too
many loopholes in such health coverage to be completely
worthwhile. The largest family health plans most national
carriers offer pay out at a lower benefits level for
"out of network charges" a stipulation that can't help
but effect the financial situation of students traveling
to Florida or even those living outside of their home
counties.
Second, many college students who's health
coverage stems from enrollment in their particular university's
on-campus medical benefits plan, be it USF's, FSU's
or one from out of state, have begun to realize that
they may need to be treated by alternative medical providers
while on vacation in FL or traveling to visit friends
in the sunshine state.
Lastly, the spring to summer time frame
might simply represent the first serious opportunity
young-adults have to have a conversation with family
about the variety of medical insurance financial issues
likely to confront them over the course their vacations.
Because, travel, student and temporary short-term health
and medical plans are comparatively simple, sites such
as The Agency for Health Insurance are ideally suiting
to providing online quotes for it-irregardless of medical
provider or whether the destination is Palm Springs,
Sarasota or Ft Lauderdale. And, given that university
students tend to be a pretty healthy bunch, the costs
of temporary coverage can be minor once consumers know
where to look. The national average indemnity premium
for a short-tern or travel policy on a college student
is only around nine-hundred dollars annually. Of course
there are disadvantages inherent in many such plans,
including the fact that certain everyday expenses such
as over-the-counter prescription drugs and minor doctor's
office expenditures may or may not be covered. But,
even with increased out-of-pocket costs added to the
premiums of student, travel or short-term health insurance
policies, the cost of providing health care to young-adults
is barely a fraction of the costs of covering their
older counterparts.
Like most other things in a FL marketplace however,
finding the best priced student health insurance deals
requires that Floridians do a bit of shopping around-getting
multiple quotes from multiple carries rather than opting
for first short-term health plan they encounter. Too
many consumers wind up regretting their decision to
purchase coverage as potentially important as student
or travel health insurance hastily. This is exactly
why the internet appears to be the best place for consumers
to run the policy right for their needs to ground. There's
hardly a shortage of FL companies on the web offering
short-term health insurance info or providing temporary
health insurance quotes, but that only makes taking
the time to shop for an independent insurance agency
as reputable as Florida-based The Agency for Health
Insurance more important than ever before. The secret
to effective insurance comparison shopping and the ultimate
consumer weapon in general is knowledge. Knowing precisely
what sort of healthcare plan you need and how much it's
like to cost is more than just half the battle it's
the whole ballgame. |
