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First, a quick summary of the situation: Almost two years ago two of my friends started dating. She is a American Catholic, he is a first generation Indian Immigrant and a Hindu. When it became obvious that they were serious her parents became extremely opposed to the relationship based on both religious and racial differences. They ordered her to break up with him, became verbally aggressive (I‘d say skirting the line of verbally abusive), and confiscated several of her medications for medical problems that they said were caused by him. These were ongoing medical problems that she had been experiencing for years before they began dating.
This summer she transferred from Notre Dame to Purdue (the school I attend, as well as her boyfriend and at which her father is a professor), effectively severing all ties with her parents. Since then she has been working full time, with an eye towards having enough money to attend school during the spring semester and complete her degree.
The problem is health insurance. She may or may not be still covered under her parents, but she doesn’t have proof of insurance, so effectively she’s not covered. Her job does not provide insurance. She’s also technically still a dependent of her parents. According to Indiana law she can only change that by turning 24, getting pregnant, getting married, or presenting evidence of abuse. Her boyfriend will lose his scholarship if he gets married and getting pregnant is obviously not a reasonable option.
I want to add that she’s handling this situation with a lot of maturity. She knew the consequences of the choices she was making and she accepted them. She is not complaining or asserting that the world has used her badly, she's taking responsibility and doing what needs to be done.
My question is: Is there any way she could get basic health insurance coverage? I’m afraid that everyone I know is rather sheltered. To us health insurance is something your parents provide until you get a job that then will provide it. We have no idea what to do when neither of those options is available. I thought that the people on Hatrack, being slightly more worldly wise, would have a better idea of what other options are available.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Usually schools have cheap coverage for students, as well as for alumni. Definitely would check out Purdue's website.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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That's a good idea, but she won't be a Purdue student until next semester. So until then she still wouldn't have coverage.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Does she still have her insurance card? (I mean, the one she would have had through her parents' insurance)
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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What insurance company does she have? If she can get the member number off the website, she can request to have a new card sent to her at her new address.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
In my humble opinion, the mature thing to do is to call her folks and ask about the card. I also like Mac's suggestion, if calling the parents is out of the question, but really, the first place to start is to simply call the folks and ask.
As for Indiana law as quoted...something appears to be missing. Is that the rule only for full time students and applicable to state schools? I mean, if a person under 24 has a full time job, they can be covered through their employer independent of parental insurance, right? Also, what if a person's parents have no insurance, or have decided not to cover the person anymore (as may be the case here), does the state simply say "tough luck" and not let them sign up for the typical offerings of insurance for students?
Also...her father is a professor at Purdue you say? And she attends there? I'm confused...is she having trouble with mother & step-father and the prof at Purdue is her biological father?
If so, would Indiana law allow him to ensure her under his policy (assuming she's over 18 and no longer a dependant on her parent's taxes).
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:assuming she's over 18 and no longer a dependant on her parent's taxes
Um, that goes until she's 21 (25?) unless she's married, I think. (Boon talked about this a while back, you'd have to look for it.) (Or you could wait until my husband gets in from doing the laundry and I could ask him.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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So, is there a law that says parents HAVE TO keep you on their insurance? What if (like in this case) the parents and kids aren't together anymore? Surely there are provisions for cases like that...
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Should we let parents abandon their responsibilities to their kids because they decide they don't like them anymore?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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A sort of mixed question/comment somewhat related to points brought up in Belle and Bob's posts:
If she calls, and the parents refuse, does that qualify as abuse under state law? Confiscating medication that she needs was bad enough; barring access to healthcare seems legally sketchy.
She can also contact any doctor she went to while still definitely covered. They will have the insurance information and can likely be convinced to give it to her. If they're sympathetic, they run a check for her.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Residence — for more than half the year, the person must have the same residence as you do. (More than half a year means, at minimum, six months and one day.)
Age — the person must be
* under age 19 at the end of the year, or * under age 24 and a be a full-time student for at least five months out of the year, or * any age and totally and permanently disabled.
Support — the person did not provide more than half of his or her own support during the year.
TIPS
* The qualifying child must live with you for more than half the year. * The old rules stated that the taxpayer must provide over half the support. The new rules state that the qualifying child must not provide more than half of his or her own support. The change makes it easier for families relying on public assistance, charity, and gifts from family members to claim a dependent. * If a child does not meet the criteria to be a "qualifying child," you may still be able to claim the child as a dependent using the tie-breaker tests or the qualifying relative tests.
posted
j_k -- that's where I was headed with my questions. At some point, the state law must recognize that some parents aren't going to do whatever the "norm" is under the state law.
Belle, I wondered about that too. If the state law really makes it impossible for this student to qualify for assistance or insurance through the school, there ought to be some provision for compelling the parents to cover the insurance. But then I thought "well...lots of families don't even have insurance, what does the law do in those cases."
15.9% of people in the US do not have any form of health insurance coverage. Something like 46 million people according to the NAS. Now, granted, Purdue University might be drawing from the 84.1% of Americans who are insured, but I can't see how this sort of situation hasn't been covered in the law and school policy.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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There's at least one other way to become independent in Indiana; become a grad student.
If they took away medications she might have a legitimate case of some kind against them; I'm not sure what the status of medications paid for by parents are, but I bet its not a good thing to withhold from a dependent (as she was at that point, if I'm reading you right).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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From the standpoint of a person who works for a health insurance company, were she to call the member line to her company, that's the easiest way to verify if her coverage is still active...and then from that point, requesting a new card be sent to her own address.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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There's always the option of purchasing a short-term individual health insurance plan, if she knows she'll be able to get onto the school's insurance in a little while:
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I agree that contacting her parents would be the logical first step, even if she thinks it might end badly. It sounds like it probably will, but it might not...so why not try it?
If that fails and she can't get on the school insurance until she is there full-time, maybe she can check local universities and see if there is a low-cost or student clinic she can attend. Most hospitals have urgent care clinics that see a lot of uninsured patients and have sliding scales to help them pay for services and medications. Finally, all state emergency rooms are bound by law to provide full service to patients regardless of their ability (or total inability) to pay. Of course, if it's not an emergency, she may have to sit in triage for hours and hours, but if she does need some kind of medical attention and all other doors are shut, that one is always open.
If she is not having any medical issues right now and is generally in good health and takes good care of herself, maybe it would be better for her to not add to her mental stress by worrying about it. I lived for three years with zero health insurance. Over that time I ended up in the hospital once and had to see doctors for a few pressing issues, but I survived just fine. Yes, a few of my medical bills went to collections and had to stay there until I had the income to pay them off, but that option was way better than dying. Your friend will be all right - and she's very highly likely to be just fine if she only has a few more months until she can enroll back in school again.
Good luck to her! I hope things work out well for her in the end. Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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By the way, if her need for medical service is "female" in nature (if ya know what I mean), Planned Parenthood can see her for very cheap - sometimes for free. She'd just have to go in and answer some questions about her financial and insurance situations first. They can also usually perform general doctoring stuff at most clinics.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: Belle, I wondered about that too. If the state law really makes it impossible for this student to qualify for assistance or insurance through the school, there ought to be some provision for compelling the parents to cover the insurance. But then I thought "well...lots of families don't even have insurance, what does the law do in those cases."
15.9% of people in the US do not have any form of health insurance coverage. Something like 46 million people according to the NAS. Now, granted, Purdue University might be drawing from the 84.1% of Americans who are insured, but I can't see how this sort of situation hasn't been covered in the law and school policy.
Well, the thing is that if she's not enrolled as a full-time student, the school probably won't do jack. They can't; they probably would get hell from whatever company provides the student health insurance. I'm completely without coverage now because I won't be registered as full-time until Monday.
I'd go with individual coverage, but it might end up being pretty expensive and she wants it to cover all of her doctor's appointments, which could be bad if she wants to save up money. I'm not saying she shouldn't have insurance; she defintiely should. But I wonder if it wouldn't be better to get a cheaper, higher-deductible policy, if that's all she really needs for now. At the same time, then she would be paying more if she did need a lot of care...
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