Health insurance for kids away from home

pizzaknish

Thu, Jun 23 2016, 10:29 pm

We will be sending a son to high school in New York next year (we live out of town) and need some help figuring out what to do about his health insurance.

He is currently on our State Medicaid plan. My understanding is that this would cover him in the case of an emergency even out of state. However, it would not cover smaller unexpected medical issues.

(I'm not concerned about a strep throat - it would cost less to just pay for that type of thing out of pocket. But anything that requires multiple doctors visits or specialized tests, x-rays, blood tests etc could get costly very quickly).

We could theoretically add him to the plan my husband and I are on, which should have coverage in NY. The issues with this are:
1. That would switch us from a primary + spouse plan to a family plan and add thousands in premiums per year
2. Then all of our other kids would be included in the family plan and become ineligible for medicaid. On the family plan we would have to pay copays for all sorts of services which we now get for free.

Has anyone been in this type of situation? What is the best approach? Suggestions?

Thanks!