INFORMATION ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENT INSURANCE AND DEDUCTIBLES
Health insurance is very important for students living away from home, especially foreign students. The reason being your medical emergencies, which would be taken care of by your medical insurance. Therefore, you must consider the subject of international student insurance before leaving your country for academic purpose.
Your medical bills, however, would not be fully borne by the insurance company from the very outset. In order to be eligible for claiming insurance cover you will first have to pay a certain portion of the expenses. Only after that would the international student insurance start paying a part of the rest of the bill. This amount of money which is paid by you during medical emergencies is known as deductibles.
After you pay the deductibles, your insurance company starts paying a percentage of the medical expenditure incurred abroad. This is known as Coinsurance. Typical medical insurance for international students plans cover 80% of the first $5000 of your medical bill. Once the expenses exceed $5000, the insurance company gives you 100% coverage against any medical emergency thereafter.
Usually deductibles range between $0 and $2,500. The higher the amount of deductible, lower is the premium payable, and vice-versa. Cover against relatively minor emergencies is avoided by the international student insurance through the inclusion of deductible. This promotes the insured to avail medical treatments only when necessary and not otherwise.
Suppose you have purchased insurance for international student with a deductible of $200. In that case, you will first have to pay $200 towards your medical expenses for medical emergencies. This qualifies you for claiming the remaining bill amount from your medical insurance company.
International student medical insurance put aside the deductibles if the primary treatment is taken at the University’s Student Health Centre. In some cases, the insurance companies do not waive the deductible but reduce it by 50%, if the first treatment is sought at the University’s student health centre.
There are two kinds of deductible. While one is applied per illness or per injury basis the other is applicable per 12 month basis. For the former, the insured person will need to pay the amount of deductible every time he/she encounters a new injury or illness. In case of the latter, the insurance holder will have to pay the medical expenses as long as the entire amount of deductible is not met.
At higher costs, some international student insurance offers very low deductibles, at times even zero deductibles. Go through all the details of various international student insurance deductibles before settling for one.
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