health insurance for international students with graduate assistantships

[xyzpsych]

I was wondering if anyone can recommend an insurance provider that they had positive experience with? I am an international student and my GA benefits does not include health insurance. The university recommends International Student Protection, but it's extraordinarily expensive for someone on assistant-ship salary. I believe we are not limited to buying insurance targeting at international students and scholars unless we plan to travel outside the US regularly.

For those who had positive experience with a certain type of insurance provider, can you share the name of the company and where were you when you filed claims with this company? I've heard that the well-known International Student Insurance (isoa.com) is pretty much a scam company that turn down most of the claims, although it's relatively inexpensive. I'm looking for honest insurance that willingly provides coverage as it purports to, even if the co-pay is slightly high. My location will be Tennessee.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Edited March 25, 2017 by xyzpsych

[TakeruK]

I replied to your other post earlier and didn't realise you were an international student (since you asked about being over 26 and not being able to use your parents' plan, so I had assumed your parents were in the US and had a plan). Sorry for the wrong assumption.

To be honest, most US insurance companies suck. Their motivation and goal is to make money, not to help people. My school has used Aetna and UnitedHealthCare. They are both okay. Some people have great experiences and some have very bad experiences. I am one of the student representatives on my campus to advocate for student health care so I hear all of the complaints from our students. My spouse has also had experience with Anthem.

I think any of the big names like the above would be fine. The most important thing is for you to be able to understand your plan very well and to advocate for yourself/fight for fair treatment. You will have to fight for it, since they won't just give it to you. For example, most of these plans are going to require you to use a provider that is in their "network" (meaning that they have some prior agreement with these doctors). You can find out who is in the network by looking on the insurance company's website. However, sometimes the website is out of date---doctors might decide to leave the network but the website doesn't show it. So, when you get your bill, you are charged a much higher "out of network" rate! Another example is just someone coded in the procedure wrong and the wrong rate was applied. When this happened to us, we had to fight the insurance company and argue that it was their fault that their website was not up to date. They refunded us the money after a lot of argument. Years later, there are several class action lawsuits against insurance companies for the same thing and now they are being legally ordered to repay people. We didn't get any additional money since we already got all of the wrong fees refunded. But that's just an example of what you would have to do to get what you paid for.

[xyzpsych]

9 hours ago, TakeruK said:

I replied to your other post earlier and didn't realise you were an international student (since you asked about being over 26 and not being able to use your parents' plan, so I had assumed your parents were in the US and had a plan). Sorry for the wrong assumption.

To be honest, most US insurance companies suck. Their motivation and goal is to make money, not to help people. My school has used Aetna and UnitedHealthCare. They are both okay. Some people have great experiences and some have very bad experiences. I am one of the student representatives on my campus to advocate for student health care so I hear all of the complaints from our students. My spouse has also had experience with Anthem.

I think any of the big names like the above would be fine. The most important thing is for you to be able to understand your plan very well and to advocate for yourself/fight for fair treatment. You will have to fight for it, since they won't just give it to you. For example, most of these plans are going to require you to use a provider that is in their "network" (meaning that they have some prior agreement with these doctors). You can find out who is in the network by looking on the insurance company's website. However, sometimes the website is out of date---doctors might decide to leave the network but the website doesn't show it. So, when you get your bill, you are charged a much higher "out of network" rate! Another example is just someone coded in the procedure wrong and the wrong rate was applied. When this happened to us, we had to fight the insurance company and argue that it was their fault that their website was not up to date. They refunded us the money after a lot of argument. Years later, there are several class action lawsuits against insurance companies for the same thing and now they are being legally ordered to repay people. We didn't get any additional money since we already got all of the wrong fees refunded. But that's just an example of what you would have to do to get what you paid for.

Hi TakeruK,

 

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I posted on the other thread to see what it would be like for American students in a similar situation. It seems, as international students, we sometime make premature assumptions about our rights too that may put us in a disadvantage. We are certainly not entitled to as many social benefits as an American student would, but you never know unless you try. For example, I got free health coverage (the White Card) when I was in California for a year for an unpaying internship while looking for a job. I applied around 2013-2014 right after everyone became obligated to have health insurance. I was planning to bank on not getting sick for a year, when I received the white card much to my pleasant surprise in my mail! That helped A LOT with managing meds etc. If I had to pay 250 dollars per month like your spouse did while on financial support by family... I just couldn't imagine that. However, I'm extremely doubtful if I will have similar luck in Tennessee , although I do plan to give it a shot at some point after relocating.

Thanks for the names of insurance carriers you used and for your suggestion on getting fair treatment. Sounds stressful but good to know that there are stories of success!

 

 

[melvina]

Thank you so much, @TakeruK for such an thorough explanation.  Really helpful for me too!   And well done for getting your refund!  It's so helpful to hear these stories beforehand, to be able to prepare better  

@xyzpsych I've heard okay things about PSI Insurance, which is also specifically for international students (so they don't have to cover all the benefits that the ACA requires for other insurance companies), but to give you a reference point, it's about $1000 per year with basic coverage that fulfils most grad school requirements.

Edited April 3, 2017 by melvina

[xyzpsych]

On 4/4/2017 at 3:54 AM, melvina said:

Thank you so much, @TakeruK for such an thorough explanation.  Really helpful for me too!   And well done for getting your refund!  It's so helpful to hear these stories beforehand, to be able to prepare better  

@xyzpsych I've heard okay things about PSI Insurance, which is also specifically for international students (so they don't have to cover all the benefits that the ACA requires for other insurance companies), but to give you a reference point, it's about $1000 per year with basic coverage that fulfils most grad school requirements.

Hey thank you! I did a bit research and expect $1000 per year to be normal. What does PSI stand for btw?