By the time your children toss their high school graduation caps into the air, they'll probably have chosen a college and mapped out their freshman courses. Health insurance is the last thing on their minds.

Young immortals

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) calls college-aged individuals "young immortals" because they often opt to go without health insurance. This is never a good idea. If they break a leg playing rugby or develop a serious illness they could find themselves drowning in medical debt before they even enter the workforce.

Often, the medical plan a parent has through work will cover children until they're 19, and may extend coverage to dependents between age 20 to 24, or until they graduate from college. Health plans often require that dependents be full-time college students. It also doesn't matter whether the child lives at home or school. There are several states that have enacted mandates that increase a dependent's eligibility to age 30 — whether they are enrolled at college or not.

If you don't have any health insurance for your child, another option is a college health plan.

College health plans could save you money, since most plans are subsidized by tuition (though not necessarily subsidized for the student's spouse or dependents).

College plans are not free, and the benefits vary from college to college, but what they do have in common is that they are often affordable. Committees from each college meet with insurance companies and design plans specific to their schools.

College plans sometimes limit preventive care, but students may have the option of going to the college health center for free services. Many times there's no charge for office visits to the health center, although students may be charged for lab work, physical therapy, X-rays, prescriptions and treatments for a minor injuries. Other covered services may include mental health treatment, well-child care, newborn and infant care, routine pap and pelvic exams, cholesterol screening and routine STD and AIDS testing. Mammograms are usually covered when prescribed by a doctor.

Typically, the school insurance provider will pay 100 percent of the cost for health center services but for coverage outside the health center, including out-of-state doctors, a student's coverage may drop to 70 percent and impose a deductible.

"If a student needs radiology services across the street, then they might have to pay a co-payment," says Elaine Whetzel, administrator of the Student Health Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "Most campus health centers are not equipped with lab facilities, so often those tests have to be sent out."

Dorothea Lyons, a spokesperson for Quincy, Mass.-based University Health Plans Inc., a nationwide student insurance broker, says, “Each school is different. Some have health centers, some don’t. Some include charges as part of the regular tuition and fees to allow the students to go to the health center and receive treatment at no cost. Some also charge a small fee at the time of service for a check-up or flu shots, though the cost is usually small."

Lyons adds that often treatment at a college health center is independent of insurance, but anything outside the health center could fall under a health plan.

"If a student were to have their blood drawn at the school’s health center, the lab where the sample is sent would send the bill to the insurance company for possible payment,” she says.

Continued: Student athletes