Most international students are young and healthy and think they don’t need to have health insurance during their time as an international student. I’m here to tell you otherwise – you need to have it! Accidents, injuries or an illness can happen anytime and you don’t want to be left paying out of pocket for medical expenses.
Picture this:
You’re heading to class on a rainy day. You’re also running a little behind because you overslept from a late night study session. You’re not paying attention and slip and fall. You try to get up but realize you can’t. You’re in tremendous pain and think you’ve broken your ankle. What do you do now?
Luckily, a friend offers to help and takes you to the nearest emergency room. You arrive at the hospital where doctors will need to perform a series of tests and x-ray’s to check your ankle.
But wait!
The hospital wants to know how you’re going to pay for your medical care. “Do you have health insurance? If not, we’ll need cash or a credit card for payment – before we will treat you!”
The cost for an emergency room visit for a broken ankle can be more than $1,000 and the x-rays start around $500. They have also said that you’ll need prescription medication for pain and inflammation. Prescription drugs could cost $100 or more! I don’t know about you but I usually don’t have $1,600 on hand to give to medical providers. We haven’t even talked about the follow-up care and physical therapy that you’ll more than likely need. This will also cost money – adding to your out-of pocket expenses.
As you can see, medical care inside the US is expensive! This is why you need to have international student health insurance. In order to get medical treatment in the US, you need to have health insurance or you will have to pay upfront for medical care.
If you have international student health insurance, you can simply show your insurance ID card for billing. Typically, there is a small deductible or copay that you would be required to pay upfront and then the insurance company will pay the difference (depending on the plan benefits and wording). You can read more about what a deducible is on our resource page about insurance terminology.
For more information on why you should have international student health insurance click here.
