You have just graduated high school and the exciting prospect of going off to college is ahead of you. You are young, fearless and invincible. It is no wonder; of all the plans you are making for college that student health insurance is not on the top of your list of things to do. However, sometimes the unexpected happens

and if that occurs, you want to be sure you are prepared. For your parents, you might be covered under their employer group insurance so they think you have sufficient protection. However, student health insurance is something that should seriously be considered for many reasons. There are benefits of getting student health insurance so it is important to compare the rates and be sure you are adequately covered.

For students who have no health care coverage at all, it is important to think about. Even if you are in the best of health, you are going away to a new school with all the stressors that that entails. You will likely be living in a dormitory and exposed to many people who might be sick. Student health insurance will help in the event of an emergency or serious illness but it will also help take care of those pesky common illnesses that may prevent you from doing your best in school. You may need a doctor visit or some prescription medication. Student health insurance will help you mitigate

the out of pocket expenses for these. If your parents are footing the bill for college, they will be pleased they won’t have to pay the exorbitant rates sometimes associated with medical expenses. Parents who have their college bound student covered under their employer’s group health insurance may want to look at how cost efficient it is as opposed to using student health insurance. First check the coverage and limits. If you have a network and the student is attending college out of the area, it is possible there are no in network physicians available in the area. This will increase the out of pocket expenses if the student requires medical care.

Also look at eligibility requirements for remaining in the group health care policy. Is there an age limit? Sometimes dependents of employees are ineligible after a certain age that can be as young as eighteen. Does your dependent have to be a full time student to be eligible? If the student drops below a certain number of hours in a semester, the student may be dropped from the insurance plan and this will leave him without coverage. If you do need to shop for student health insurance, keep in mind that it is generally less expensive than other forms of insurance for many reasons. Insurance premiums are assessed by risk. The college student is statistically younger and healthier and requires fewer medical expenses. This means the student is a lower risk which equates to lower premiums. It is also assumed that the student will eventually either graduate or drop out of college. In either instance, the student is no longer eligible for student health insurance. Statistically speaking, the shorter time covered via one plan, the lower the risk.

As with any form of insurance, it is advisable to shop around for rates and compare for the best value. Student health insurance is no different than other insurance in that there may be discounts available for certain situations. It is possible there are discounts available for utilizing on-campus facilities for health care. If the premium amount is a bit much, consider increasing the deductible. This is especially helpful if the student is in very good health. If you have other insurance such as auto or home owners insurance through your agent, see if there is a discount for adding another policy.

Ask your agent what discounts are available and shop around to compare quotes on student health insurance. You may not think student health insurance is a necessary expense but if the unexpected happens, you will be glad you have it.

Being a student is a challenging and exciting time of life. A lot of changes are taking place, with a lot of stress thrown into the mix. And most students don’t have a lot of extra money lying around with which to pay for their health insurance, so it’s important that they are able to find coverage at wholesale prices. But is that even possible today?

The answer is – YES. Not only is it possible to still find student health coverage at savings of 30% to 40%, it’s a lot easier to get this discount than most people realize.

Before I reveal the secret to getting your health policy at such an incredible discount, let’s talk about some of the ways for you to save even MORE each and every month.

Start by paying your premium automatically every month directly from your bank account. Auto pay saves your company a lot more than you might think in printing and postage costs and they are only too glad to pass most of that savings back to you in the form of a lower monthly premium.

Don’t necessarily take the standard 25% co-payment offered with most health policies. A 25% co-pay is O.K. if you see your doctor a lot each year, but if you are generally healthy and only see your doctor once or twice a year then you can save quite a bit every month simply by increasing your co-pay to 50%.

Don’t smoke and don’t use chew. You know better than most people how incredibly bad for your health smoking and using chew is – and it’s also bad for your pocketbook when it comes time to pay your health premium every month. If you’re serious about saving money on your student health insurance then you’re going to have to be just as serious about quitting all forms of tobacco.

Fast food burgers and fries are killing you. They pump so much fat and so many calories into your system that they are – literally – destroying your body and adding many pounds to your weight. If you have weight issues then simply cutting all fast food burgers and fries from your diet will go a long way toward solving your problem – and losing weight will also lower the cost of your health coverage tremendously.

Increasing your deductible – the amount that you pay out of your own pocket every year for your health care – can vastly decrease the amount that you pay every month for your premium. The trick here is to find the perfect balance between how much you save every month on premium costs, and how much you can actually afford to pay every year for your own health care.

But the really Big Secret to saving a cool 30% to 40% instantly is also the easiest thing you can do. Just buy your policy online.

That’s all there is to getting your student health insurance at wholesale prices – just buy it from an online broker.

How can online brokers afford to sell policies so cheaply? Two reasons. First, they have almost no overhead. That reason alone saves you a tremendous amount. But additionally, online brokers have a ton of competition and the only way to stay competitive in a cut-throat environment like that is to cut prices to the bone and then cut them some more.

The bottom line is YOU WIN. Oh – and there’s one more advantage to buying your policy online. You won’t have an agent looking over your shoulder and trying to sell you things you don’t need and can’t afford. YOU are in total control when you buy your policy online – and isn’t that great for a change?