Should You Have Tuition Insurance?
I never heard of tuition insurance before the Coronavirus. Frankly, I never heard of a lot of things that are happening now. Yet, with many students postponing their freshman year until they can enjoy it the usual way, in classrooms, going to parties, football games, meeting new friends, and having roommates with names other than Mom or Dad, some may think that purchasing tuition insurance will give them the protection they need should this pandemic continue for longer than I care to mention. The question is, will tuition insurance do what we would think or hope?
Tuition insurance can reimburse tuition, room and board, and academic fees if your student withdraws from school for a qualifying medical event and won’t be able to earn academic credit for that term. Tuition insurance will typically compensate 75% -100% of the fees you paid if your student withdraws during the first 4 to 5 weeks of a semester. At this point, colleges will usually refund some of what has been paid, and the insurance would pay the rest. However, the keyword here is qualifying in regard to the type of medical reason a withdrawal became necessary and must be supported by an assessment by a licensed medical professional.
Read the fine print, because the truth is tuition insurance covers only a limited amount of conditions and coronavirus may not be one of them. Before purchasing tuition insurance, consider if the policy covers pre-existing conditions (i.e.: no symptoms for 60 to 180 days prior to the policy purchase date), mental health issues (some cover suicide or suicide attempts; others don’t), and substance abuse. Consider getting a letter from a doctor stating they are well enough to start college to cover a condition that could possibly worsen. All this said; pandemics are generally excluded. Generally.
What does this mean; pandemics not being included during a time of just that? Basically, it means that if a student contracts Covid-19, they might be covered. This is where that fine print comes in. If, however, the college sends students home; tuition and housing fees won’t be reimbursed. If your student is simply afraid to return to campus, and no one can blame them, or doesn’t like learning online; the insurance will not help. So really, it only helps if they get sick, and hopefully, if they get Covid-19, they will breeze through it and be able to return to college life quickly.
In the end, before purchasing insurance, you will need to consider all these things, as well as the costs which vary depending on your policy and how much coverage you opt for. Remember too that many colleges will partially reimburse payments if students withdraw within the first 4 to 5 weeks of a semester. Most people won’t need tuition insurance, but perhaps the peace of mind it might provide is worth the expense.
In a time where most college kids have only slightly altered their partying techniques, the chances of them getting Covid-19 seems a bit more elevated than the way we, as parents, are living. We certainly hope not and have no idea how or if it will affect their ability to successfully complete the semester, so maybe yes; read all the fine print and invest. Or, perhaps your student is opting to stay home for another semester or two, and your worries and the idea of purchasing tuition insurance are not an issue.
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