Tips for Easy Health Insurance Shopping
Going without health insurance of any kind can be a huge risk. College students tend to not concern themselves with this subject, focusing instead on making the grade. However, the good news for students is that virtually all colleges and universities have some kind of student health center. The more prestigious schools, like Stanford University, have much more advanced facilities like Vaden Health Center.
Student health centers aren’t the same caliber as traditional hospitals but they do employ experienced and knowledgeable medical staff, including nurses. Whether a student has a cold, needs their prescription filled or requires the assistance of a counselor, parents of college students can be assured that their kids are in capable hands, should the need for medical assistance come about.
Whether a student has health insurance or not, they do have access to a facility that offers basic services to those that need it. But college (in most cases) doesn’t last forever and even though the latest changes in healthcare reform guarantees that young adults can stay on their parents’ coverage until age of 26, it is important that those same individuals know what options are available to them once their 27th birthday comes around. Although healthcare is evolving, the economy and job market is still working on repairing itself. Securing employment that comes with health benefits may not happen by the time a graduate gets removed from their parents’ policy, meaning a plan B might be necessary.
It doesn’t hurt for college students to do research while in school to gain a better understanding of how shopping for health insurance works. The Internet is a great place to start. There are a number of health related websites that deal with insurance policies but the main ones that should be at the top of the list to check out are those that provide quotes and cost comparisons. This allows a person to receive a much more accurate picture of what they could expect as far as how much a policy costs and whether or not they can afford it.
Sites like 2health go a step further in making its website user friendly by giving visitors the option to choose what their situation is, in order to better match policies. For example, a user can select from the following categories that describe themselves: Individual, Family, Short-Term, Small Business, Expatriate, Travel and Dental.
This seemingly simple feature on a website makes it much easier to narrow down relevant results during a search. Run of the mill cost comparison sites perform a search tailored to the user but sometimes still deliver results that contain too much information that may not be necessarily what the person is looking for.
The more personalized the experience when shopping for health insurance policies, the better. After a few minutes of browsing such sites, it doesn’t take long to see which ones really care about getting users the right information and which ones are more about the run around.