Help with Insurance During School

Go online and type in medicaid eligibility. I did this the other day at work because we work with alot of medicaid people and I was wondering what the criteria was to be on medicaid. Usually you can pay "cobra"., keeping your insurance now-pay premiums for about 18months. You need to check with his job. Also, you may want to get some health insurance with a very high deductible, so that in case of a car wreck ,you aren't financially devasted. Good Luck

If you don't qualify for Midicaid you can probably qualify for CHIP's. My children were on CHIPS insurance for a year after my husband got laid off. This would at least cover them but you would have to find an alternative for you and your husband.
I'm afraid I have never used Medicade so I don't know where to start applying for it. Although while I was in grad school many of the graduate families used it. You might have your husband go to the financial services department at your school and ask about it. Most schools are very good at pointing you in the right direction.
Also I read recently that CHIP's has began offering dental coverage.
Here is a link to the CHIP's application.
http://www.chipmedicaid.org/cbo/application.htm
Fill it out and send it in. They review the application rather quickly and will let you know if you qualify or not. If your income is too small even for CHIP's they may tell you if you qualify for Medicaid and give you an application.

R. Pocai

I am not familiar with how medicaid works, but my husband owns his own business (I stay at home) and we had to go on an individual health insurance plan. The best advice I can give is to look up an insurance broker in your area. They seek out the best rates and insurance needs for your family. This doesn't cost you a dime. The number one individual health insurance is Blue Cross/Blue Shield followed by UniCare. As far as dental insurance, I have found that it is cheaper to go without dental coverage than to be on a plan. Good luck.

You probably will have to apply for a major medical plan instead of the usual HMO/PPO/POS. They are more expensive but will at least cover you and your family in case of any catastrophic illness. You should ask your husband to inquire with his counselors at Parker about applying for health insurance. I am sure they are asked this question all the time. My guess is that the national or texas chiropractic associations have sponsored some kind of insurance plan for their students and members.

Hi A.,

I use to work in Human Resources as well as once being on medicaid. I know that Cobra can be pretty expensive depending on your insurance now. For Medicaid: If you will go down to the Department of Human Services which is on the corner of Loop 288 and East McKinney they have the form that you need to fill out to see if you qualify for medicaid. You can always go with an independent insurance provider. I know from experience that Blue Cross Blue Shields is pretty good. I think some Auto Insurance places provide Health Insurance as well. Getting Health Insurance along with your Car and Home Insurance can save you money b/c you get discounts when you go with multiple insurance with the same company. Anyway I hope you are able to find some insurance what ever it is that you decide to do. I hope this helped a little.

The National Association for the Self Employed (NASE) has a reasonable insurance plan. You can google their site I think.

I used to teach, and when I quit to stay at home and start a business, we had to get individual insurance. We checked out a LOT of them, and by far Unicare was the most affordable (followed by Blue Cross Blue Shield). It was actully cheaper than what I was paying to add my family to my group plan when I taught. When it was just my husband, it was $69 a month. Now that we are a family of 4, it is $250.

I have always been happy with it-I asked my pediatrician's office before switching us all over and they were happy with it too. The really nice thing is you can buy directly from Unicare at www.unicare.com and don't have to use a broker. You can just type in your ages and see all of the available plans. There are some even cheaper than ours. One word of caution though-no individual insurance plans in Texas offer maternity care. (A few offer a maternity rider, but the cost is ridiculous and the coverage too small). That's why we used a birthing center, which was fabulous...but that is a whole different story.

As far as dental insurance goes, I have yet to find one worth the cost. Best of luck!