Oakland University

 

08/24/22: See updates below

A few years ago (just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit U.S. shores), I posted a lengthy, wonky entry about healthcare plans for college students and how they're a perfect example of how dramatically one insurance risk pool can vary from another.

This post was very personal for me because it was inspired by my own family moving from an ACA exchange individual market policy over to the student plan my wife (and therefore our son and myself) qualifies for due to her enrolling at Oakland University here in Michigan, where she's getting her counseling degree.

The plan being offered to all students (including graduate students and their families) was a Gold PPO through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Here's how it compared against the closest equivalent policies available on the ACA exchange at the time, assuming we didn't qualify for any ACA subsidies (remember, this was before the American Rescue Plan beefed up & enhanced the subsidies to those earning more than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level):

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