Take a moment to consider the need of international student’s medical insurance if you are a student going abroad for academic purpose. Every year numerous international students meet with medical emergencies. However, if the student is insured then most of his/her medical bills would be paid by the insurance for international students.

The insurance company would not pay your bills right away. You will be required to pay a certain amount of money towards your medical bill in order to be eligible for claiming cover from the international students medical insurance company against the rest of the bill. This sum of money, which you are required to pay, is known as deductible.

After you pay the deductible, the international student’s insurance company starts paying a certain percentage of the remainder of the bill. This is termed as Coinsurance. Usually, the insurance company covers 80% of the first $ 5000 of the medical expenses. 100% coverage is provided once the $5000 limit is exceeded.

The range of deductibles start from $0 and goes up to $250.Usually, the lower the premium the higher is the deductible, and vice-versa. Insurance companies evade claims relatively trivial in nature with the help of deductibles. Inclusion of deductibles also encourages people not to frivolously engage in medical treatment.

Consider a situation where you have purchased international students medical insurance with a deductible worth $100. So, if you meet with a medical emergency then you will first have to pay $100 towards your medical bill. Only after doing so will you be eligible to claim payment of the rest of the bill from the insurance company.

Usually, student’s insurance companies waive deductible if the policyholder seeks the initial treatment from the Student’s Health Centre of his/her academic institution. However, some international student insurance doesn’t waive the deductible but reduces the deductible to as much as half the amount of deductible if treatment is received from the Student’s Health Centre.

Typically, deductibles are of two kinds. One is applied based on per sickness or per injury, while the other is applied on a yearly basis. In case of the first type, every time the insurance holder encounters a new kind of injury or sickness, he/she will have to pay the amount of deductible. For the other type, the policyholder will be required to pay his medical bills as long as the insurance holder does not pay the full amount of deductible.

Some student’s insurance provides very low or even zero deductible. However, the cost is higher in such cases. It is advisable to read the policy benefits carefully before choosing the international student insurance deductible.  Jim Gardener