Reader question:

I’m just been accepted as a student at Columbia University in New York, and I heard that you have to have health insurance to go there. Is that true?

Albert

Yep.

You could say that Columbia is looking out for its students by requiring every student who attends classes there full time to be covered by a decent Columbia health insurance plan. It’s both trying to make sure that it is not responsible for any student ‘accidents’ and to make sure that its students are provided with proper health care. It can seem like a huge burden for many students to buy expensive health insurance after many are already putting forty thousand dollars a year into Colombia just for tuition and their dorm. It’s important as a student at CU, then, to compare health insurance quotes and determine which plan is best and cheapest for you.

Like most universities, Columbia University has clinicians on the campus who can help treat you if you fall ill or get injured and can prescribe you medication. However, there are many emergency situations that these clinicians are not qualified to deal with, and Columbia wants its students to be able to go get good health care from a hospital at these times.

Columbia doesn’t just leave its students hanging out to dry and having to find health insurance coverage on their own or else. Rather, it offers a program called the Student Medical Insurance Plan with which students can register for basic or comprehensive coverage. Whenever you register for classes full time at this school, your name is immediatly enrolled in this plan. If you already have health insurance and those don’t want to use the Columbia health insurance plan, then you can submit a waiver.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.