• 18
  Sep
  2009

• What is COBRA and how does it influence health insurance?

  
  Filed Under: Health Insurance
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COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, a landmark law that the American Congress passed in 1986. The law affects all employees working for a registered private company employing more than 20 people.

Employer-provided group health insurance policies have a considerably low premium in comparison to individual health care policies. The employer also, generally, pays a part of employees' health insurance premium. The coverage available to the employee and his/her dependents gets severely affected should the employee lose his job.

COBRA makes sure that the same premium rates are available to the ex-employee for a maximum period of 18 months, or before he/she gets a new job that provides health insurance coverage. The premium, in entirety, has to be borne by the individual. COBRA only guarantees the same premium amount from the health insurance provider.

How does it influence students? Well, if you are a dependent child of a parent who has unfortunately lost his/her job, your continued coverage is determined by COBRA. If at any point during your student status you lose dependent status, the coverage ceases. The best thing during such a time is to buy an individual health insurance policy for yourself. A specially crafted policy for students can go a long way in keeping you covered at very competitive premiums.

• 17
  Sep
  2009

• How health (or any kind of) insurance works

  
  Filed Under: Health Insurance
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Ever wondered how exactly health insurance works? How some company can charge you $100, and yet pay a $100,000 coverage for your health care expenditure? We try to clear up some facts regarding this.

Consider your university is the insurer, you (the international student) are one of the insured and your contribution is the premium. Let us take some numbers and see if they add up. Please bear in mind that these are numbers just for explaining, and not real premiums or sum assured values.

You are covered for an amount of $100,000. There are 10,000 students in the university. If we multiply these , we get 10 billion. That doesn't seem to make sense. Here comes something that is referred to as risk factor. The chances of one person falling ill and needing coverage is a lot, and that is a risk not worth taking for any insurer. But when we look at this big a group, the chances of everyone falling ill is greatly reduced.

The risk factor is, say, 5% i.e. around 500 students will need to make a health insurance claim. That means, a maximum of 50 million dollars can be claimed. The premium per student now is $50,000,000 / $100,000 = $500. Not everyone will make the full claim (based on statistics, actually less than 20% of them will), that means a) the premium can be further reduced, and b) it is the profit margin of the insurer.

The insured will get the money when needed, the insurer a healthy margin. Everyone is benefited.

• 16
  Sep
  2009

• Pregnant International Student

  
  Filed Under: FAQ

Q: I wanna ask if 2 international student live together and recently the girl has been pregnant, 5 months I believe, what would happen to them? Thanks

A: International Student plans offer maternity coverage. Most treat pregnancy as any other condition. But to receive coverage the person must not be pregnant while buying the plan. Conception must occur after the start date of the plan. This underscores the need to purchase international student insuance immediatelty after arrival in the US

• 15
  Sep
  2009

• Sports Injuries? No worries

  
  Filed Under: Health Insurance
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No sportsperson can avoid injuries on the field forever (unless we consider board games too). They say - if you have never injured yourself, you probably haven't played hard enough. The real fun of sports is in how fast you can recover and bounce back after an injury. Having said that, a sports injury will still need health care, which will include expenses payable to a doctor, a hospital and a pharmacist. A little precaution in the form of a health insurance policy (and don't forget the sports rider) can go a long way in taking care of these unavoidable medical expenses.

If you are a foreign student studying in the USA, and often participate in athletic and sports events, a health insurance policy is all the more essential for you. Health care expenditure is quite high in the USA, and an injury followed by extended care might well upset your budget.

If you participate in contact sports like football or ice hockey, or athletic events like sprinting or long/high jumping, you would already be aware of the chances of an injury happening any time. Why take a chance?

A health insurance policy specially designed with the needs of international students in mind is always a good idea. Let health care expenditure be the last thing on your mind while you go for that medal, or that long-standing elusive record. Get health insurance, play without worries.