Health Insurance during med school

[Twitch]

Just curious if anyone is using health insurance from somewhere else than what Megalife (20% out of pocket with no annual cap!) provides for some schools.

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[Ashers]

I use the HMO my school has... $10 office copays, then decent Rx prices. Everything involved in a recent surgery 100% covered.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I use the HMO my school has... $10 office copays, then decent Rx prices. Everything involved in a recent surgery 100% covered.

Wow, your school offers decent coverage. My school offers that cr@ppy Megalife thing mentioned above.

 

[MadameLULU]

I've had megalife and yeah, i was very unsatisfied (they wouldn' t cover injuries from IM sports) BOO.

My school offers insurance from Chickering which is a branch of Aetna. One of my friends who has worked as an chem E says Chickering is as good, if not better as his former employers insurance.

 

[dj dizzle]

do you always have to buy health insurance through the school? or can i stick with my old insurance if I am still lucky enough to still be cover under my parents?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

do you always have to buy health insurance through the school? or can i stick with my old insurance if I am still lucky enough to still be cover under my parents?

Most schools let you stick with your parents' plan or buy a suitable private plan if you want. I've heard of a few schools that don't, but that's extremely rare.

 

[ColinHay]

megalife can be good but not if you go through school.
either way find something other than school cause the coverage there usually does not apply over the summer.

 

[Critical Mass]

They require us to have health insurance, but the package that they offer is really just money out of my student loans with no benefit ever seen by me.

 

[Ashers]

megalife can be good but not if you go through school.
either way find something other than school cause the coverage there usually does not apply over the summer.

It must depend on the school. Ours is for 12 months, even if we're not in school. I've never heard of Megalife. I'd seriously be screwed this year and last summer if it weren't for my school's insurance.

 

[pillowhead]

I've had megalife and yeah, i was very unsatisfied (they wouldn' t cover injuries from IM sports) BOO.

My school offers insurance from Chickering which is a branch of Aetna. One of my friends who has worked as an chem E says Chickering is as good, if not better as his former employers insurance.

Chickering is the school insurance at my school and most people don't seem to like it. I've heard numerous complaints about it and the prescription drug coverage is terrible because it has very low annual caps. Anyone with say one or two chronic medical conditions who is also on OCPs or something like that can easily go over the annual limit (at least with my school's plan) and that has happened to at least two people in my class. They ended up with thousands of dollars in out of pocket expenses to cover meds. (And for one student, this was CHEMOTHERAPY meds.)

If you're still able to get your parent's insurance, that was permitted at my school.

I chose to go independently and use Kaiser Permanente. Lower monthly cost with higher deductibles (of course, be sure you actually have the couple of thousand bucks on hand if you needed to pay it) and copays but no limits on anything. I have been happy with Kaiser but if you need specialist care for something, I may think twice about it. I think Kaiser is generally good for an otherwise healthy person who just needs the occasional sick visit and takes the same prescription meds all the time (like nasal spray for allergies).

Oh, one thing I really do like about Kaiser is that they run their own urgent care centers which is just awesome when you have a sore throat and fever and it's Sunday or you're on your surgery rotation and can't get to the doctor until 9pm at night. You pay twice the regular office visit copay but can go without an appointment on Saturday or Sunday or weeknights until about 10pm. It's great for M3 and M4 years.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Chickering is the school insurance at my school and most people don't seem to like it. I've heard numerous complaints about it and the prescription drug coverage is terrible because it has very low annual caps. Anyone with say one or two chronic medical conditions who is also on OCPs or something like that can easily go over the annual limit (at least with my school's plan) and that has happened to at least two people in my class. They ended up with thousands of dollars in out of pocket expenses to cover meds. (And for one student, this was CHEMOTHERAPY meds.)

Ha, I don't even have prescription drug coverage, so going over sounds luxurious. My school has a core plan and buy down plan. If you cover anyone other than yourself, the core plan is unaffordable. Since my husband wasn't eligible for any coverage when I start school, I had to go for the buy down plan, which we're paying nearly $4k for -- we get no prescription coverage, no stop gap, $1k deductible a piece, are out 20% of the cost of everything and the policy cuts us off at really low levels (like $20k an illness). So if either of us really got sick, it'd still essentially be like we didn't have insurance because we'd still not be able to pay for anything. The core plan is marginally better, but still pretty cr@ppy imo.

The problem with going with private coverage is that they'll probably exclude any pre-existing conditions, and most private policies make you pay a ton more if you want maternity coverage, which just screws women.

We do get free visits to the family medical center, but you have to schedule appointments like a year in advance to get in. I'm going to the point where I need my annual exam, and I have no clue where/if I can do that without shelling out over $100.