Hello all…I think this might be my first post on the Med Student forum.
First, a genuine thanks to all of you in med school who find and make the time to come back to the forums to share your insights and encourage us on… I very much hope I have the same opportunity (and thoughtfullness) when I am a med student. 
I did some searches on this forum and only came up with a couple hits on the topic of ‘insurance’.
My wife and I right now are having some concern over the costs and coverage of insurance for us and our two children if/when I am a med school student.
The couple posts I did find just touched the surface of the topic, but the gist of it seemed to be that for finding an affordable way in providing insurance coverage for the family it usually means that the other spouse is going to have to work and have good benefits.
We expect that my wife will be working part time, but will probably have little in benefits, much less any comprehensive family health insurance.
We are scared in looking at the likelihood of having to make some major adjustments when I have to leave my job and career…for the past 8 years we have had relatively good health insurance through the two companies I have worked for.
It seems that many (most?) of the OPMers with children that are in med school have spouses with solid careers and benefits where keeping the family covered is not much of a concern.
Do some states have more favorable (means tested) public programs than others?
Are there ‘affordable’ (I know again another relative concept) private plans with reasonable premiums and deductibles?
Are there any OPM forum links on this subject that you could share?
By chance, do some schools cover their students with tuition or at least at discounted rates?
Would really appreciate those who could share how they have provided for the family health coverage, when it is not coming from the other spouse.
Thanks so much everyone!
Neil
Many schools offer some sort of health insurance (at variable cost) to students. I don’t know how many of those offer plans to cover families. Ohio State offers family insurance at a cost of ~$2100 per quarter. Individual health insurance is ~$500 per quarter. Some students at my school felt that they could get comparable insurance at a lower cost on their own and did so.
The cost of your health insurance will generally be included in your student budget, allowing you to borrow enough money to pay for it, but I don’t know if schools will allow you to borrow enough extra for family health insurance.
Thanks Emergency! for laying out some of the options…
It sounds like this should be a point of research that I take up with individual schools and factor into my schools that I choose to apply to.
You can look at a high deductible plan from Blue Cross. I have no idea how often you typically use insurance. One scheme would be to go with a high deductible, like $5000/year, just to handle things if something really bad happens, and then just pay as you go if you need small things. Pretty cheap for premiums (<$100/mo for myself).
I never really go to the doctor, and have no regular prescription needs, so I just have the above plan in case I get hit by a bus. If you need services regularly, and need a more traditional plan, you’re going to pay big.