Health insurance for a college student, part 2, or let’s pray that our son doesn’t get sick between academic quarters

For part #1, see http://onthefringe_jewishblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/and-i-thought-what-i-posted-last-night.html#comments, in which my husband discovers that his health insurance company has changed its policy--college students 22 and older are no longer covered.

We just paid $275 for our son to see the family practitioner. He’ll be covered by student health insurance, all right—from June 6 to August 15 only! That’s when he’ll be undertaking a college-sponsored research project at another college. After that, he’ll be without coverage again until he’s officially re-enrolled for the fall academic quarter at his usual college. Every time he’s between academic quarters, there’ll be an insurance-coverage gap. That’s pretty scary for the parents of a kid with kidney stones—a trip to the hospital could set us back by several hundred bucks. To be put in a position in which we have to worry as much about the cost of our son’s health problems as we worry about his health problems themselves is revolting.