Get Degree Lose Health Insurance

BY KATIE MERX
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER


This weekend and for the next few weeks, thousands of Michigan college students will graduate from college and into the ranks of the uninsured.

With the hectic business of graduating, finding a job and moving, many won't realize they're suddenly living without health insurance.

Even those who are aware they've lost coverage may not do anything about it. After all, they're young, invincible and -- in many cases -- making modest, if not meager, incomes. And health insurance can be expensive.

Forty percent of college graduates are uninsured at some time during the year after their graduation, according to a survey by Milwaukee-based Assurant Health and the College Parents of America. That leaves the grads without easy access to health care and at risk of accumulating massive medical bills before they've even paid for their education.

That's exactly the bind Rob Logan landed in when he graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 2004.

Logan lost the health coverage he had through his mom's employer when he graduated. He had two part-time jobs, but neither provided health insurance.

At first, Logan was indifferent. He was young and healthy.

"I wasn't too worried about it," he said. "I don't get sick and don't take many risks. I wasn't fearing for my life."

But his parents, Pete and Elaine Logan, were concerned. If he was injured in a car accident or needed an emergency appendectomy, he couldn't afford it.

"As parents, we would do anything for him," said Pete Logan. "But it would probably bankrupt us. ... We finally told him: 'If you won't do it for yourself, we have to do it for us.' "

So Rob Logan agreed to sign up for a plan that would cover the scary, expensive stuff.

The Logans, like many people, weren't sure where to start, but made their way to eHealthInsurance.com, where they looked at affordable individual plans that would save the Logans from bankruptcy in the case of an expensive medical emergency.

Because Rob Logan wasn't sure when he would find a job that offered health benefits and didn't have much of an income, the Logans chose an individual plan with a $3,500 deductible after which there was no co-payment.

"It was like 65 bucks a month," Rob Logan said.

The plan wouldn't cover doctor's visits, prescription drugs or annual physicals. Plus, the deductible would have emptied his bank account and then some.

But his parents were confident they could help with the deductible without worrying that they'd lose their Scio Township home.

Pete Logan said he plans to find a similar plan for his second son, Ben Logan, who is preparing to graduate from Michigan State University next weekend.

"I think it is important for parents to consider health insurance not only for the well-being of their child, but for their own financial benefit," Pete Logan said.

But it can be a difficult and confusing process, he said. Several of his friends have called him for advice on how to shop for coverage.

Choosing individual insurance can be confusing, said Tim Hite, a benefits consultant at the Reaume Co. in Troy. Many people don't know how to go about it.

But it has its advantages, Hite said. Individual plans stay with the covered person regardless of job status, and they are easily canceled if the individual or spouse becomes eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance.

Rob Logan, now 24, canceled his individual policy in January, when the employer-sponsored health insurance took effect at the job he landed in October.

Individual plans are available in all combinations of benefits, as well as in short-term policies, for people between jobs or those waiting for employer-sponsored health care to kick in. Many group health plans don't take effect for 30 to 90 days after the hire date.

And depending on the deductibles and co-pays, individual plans can be affordable, ranging from $30 on up.

People can search for individual policies by calling your insurance agent or a health insurance company, or by checking a quote-finding site such as www.eHealthInsurance.com.

"A lot of young people just want to be covered in case they are out on a bike ride and get hurt," said Emily Fox, director of corporate communications for eHealthInsurance.com. "But the shopping is really important."

The prices of individual plans vary widely based on co-pays and deductibles.

"It's important to remember that many of these are just for catastrophic coverage, so if you have anything" minor "happen to you, you're going to pay for it," Fox said.

"So when people are healthy and heading in this direction, before they fall off their parents' plan" or some other, "they should go and have a doctor's visit and get their annual checkup taken care of so they don't have to worry about it."

Rob Logan said everybody should do what they can to acquire some sort of emergency health coverage.

"A lot of my friends are not as lucky as me and don't have people who can help them. ... But it's worth having," he said. The lack of health insurance "is a major problem with a lot of younger people, and I imagine older people, too. Quite a few people I know have major debt because of medical costs."