What is International Student Health Insurance in USA?2025 Guide for University Students

What is International Student Health Insurance in the USA?2025 Guide for University Students

Planning to study abroad, but did you know the importance of health insurance while you’re staying away from your home country? Well, today I’ll break it down for you.

Today, in this blog post, I’m going to explain to you what international health insurance is, how it is accepted in your university, and how it works at the university and nearby providers, doctors, hospitals, and all the other medical health centers.

So let’s go.

What is International Student Health Insurance?

Health insurance for international students is a type of policy that covers all the medical costs, emergencies, injuries, illness, and sickness while they are studying in a foreign country.

Since healthcare can be really expensive, especially in the US, a good comprehensive health insurance plan ensures that you are covered all the time and can access the medical services to avoid any overwhelming out-of- pocket expenses.

Now that you know what a health insurance plan is for international students, let me brief you about some of the important terminologies that play a major role in defining any health insurance plan for international students in the US.

Basic Terminologies of Health Insurance

So let me start with premium. I’m sure you would be knowing this already because this is what we generally use for all the insurance plans.

Premium is an amount that we give to the insurance company to purchase the insurance. Purchasing the insurance means that you’re paying this amount as a subscription fee to the insurance company for a period of insurance. The premium amount may vary according to students age, coverage of insurance and the plan you are selecting.

The second terminology is the deductible and I would say it’s the most important one. Deductible is an amount that the student or the insured have to pay from their pocket before the insurance company starts paying for any claims.

In simple words, it is like a processing fee that you’re paying to start your insurance plan or before your insurance plan kicks in. The deductible can be of two kinds. One is an annual deductible and the second is per treatment deductible.

Per treatment deductible means that you’re paying the deductible on every visit whenever you’re visiting any medical provider, the doctor or the hospital. An annual deductible means once the deductible is charged whenever you use your insurance plan.

For example, you have a plan that has a deductible of $100. Now, the first time you go to any medical provider, suppose the bill comes to about $1,000. Out of $1,000, 100 would be taken out as part of the deductible that you will be paying or an insured would be paying from their pocket. Usually the plans with higher deductibles have lower monthly premiums.

The third terminology over here is co insurance. Now co- insurance is a percentage amount that is divided between the insurance company and the insured and it is applied after the deductible gets over.

So I’ll go back to the same example of a $1,000 bill where you paid 100 as part of the deductible. 900 was the remaining amount. Now this $900 would be divided on the basis of the percentage given in the plan. Suppose the percentage is 80/20. 80% of 900 will be paid by the company and 20% will be given by the insured or by you.

So the fourth terminology over here is the co-payment. The co-payment is a fixed amount that you pay for visiting a provider for visiting a doctor or any other medical provider or suppose if you’re getting an X-ray done.

Now these charges are given in your plan brochure as a fixed amount. If you’ll see in the plan brochure it is mentioned for visiting a physician $20 co-payment may be applied. Similarly for getting an X-ray done a $50 co-payment will be applied.

Now the charges may depend on the plan you have but you’ll always see a different bifurcation for all the co-payment charges that are there in your plan.

Deductible vs Co-payment Explained

The difference between deductible and co-payments. They sound quite similar when you go through the terminology. They look quite similar but the basic difference between co-payments and deductibles would be co-payments are paid per visit.

The deductibles are generally paid once in the policy period. If you’re purchasing the plan for the entire uh coverage period for the entire year, then you’re paying the deductible only once on your first visit. Whereas the co-payments are being applied on every visit. And like I mentioned earlier, there are per treatment deductibles as well.

So if you have a plan that has a per treatment deductible, that may not have a co-payment whenever you’re going to a doctor or any other medical provider.

International health insurance plans are quite complex to understand for the students. I just explained a few terminologies. Those are the deductibles, co- insurance and co-payments.They play a role of cost sharing elements. But there is a lot more to understand.

Coinsurance

After you’ve paid your deductible, coinsurance refers to how the remaining medical bill is split between you and the insurance company, e.g., 80/20 means the insurance pays 80% and you pay 20%.

Out-of-Pocket Maximum

This is the most you will have to pay in a year for covered healthcare services. Once you reach this limit, the insurance covers 100% of your expenses for the rest of the year.

Pre-existing Condition

Any medical condition or illness you had before your insurance started. Some plans may not cover treatment related to these conditions at first.

Network

A group of doctors, hospitals, and clinics that have agreed to provide medical services at negotiated rates with your insurance company. Staying in-network usually costs less.

Primary Care Physician (PCP)

Your main doctor who handles general health issues and refers you to specialists if needed. For many insurance plans, you start your care with your PCP.

Specialist

A doctor who focuses on a specific area of medicine, like skin (dermatologist) or heart (cardiologist). You often need a referral from a PCP to see a specialist under your insurance.

Waiver

If your university offers a health insurance plan but you already have suitable insurance, you might be able to apply for a waiver to avoid paying for the school’s plan.

Why is Health Insurance Important in the USA?

Now why is health insurance important for international students? First of all, it is one of the most important requirements or I would say it’s mandatory for all the international students to maintain a health insurance plan when they are joining any university in the US.

Now you always have an option to take the insurance from your university. And when you’ll check your I 20 document, you’ll see a separate section where your insurance premium which is offered by the university is mentioned which is quite costly.

It may range somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 or even more than that. You always have a comparable option if your university accepts an external plan. Now, always check the waiver requirements of your university if they are accepting a plan.

There you go. You can easily save up to $3,000 or even more than that on purchasing an external insurance plan. Now, when I say waiver, most of the students don’t know what waiver requirements are.

Waiver Requirements for University Insurance

Basically,you’re informing the university that you don’t need to take the plan that is being provided by them as you have a comparable insurance plan that matches the requirements that are set by the university.

Acceptance of your health insurance plan at the university is important. But at the same time you need to ensure that the plan you have purchased is comprehensive that provides minimum coverage of emergency rooms, medications, hospitalizations, preventive services, medical evacuation, repatriation remains etc.

By now you must have understood that if you are an international student and joining any university in the US then health insurance is mandatory for you and you also have an option to waive it off.