3.8 stars
3.5 stars
3.1 stars
See More See LessMany states and colleges require students to have health insurance before they can begin classes. This is why many colleges offer school-sponsored plans for students who need coverage. But even if a school doesn’t require it, having health insurance is an important part of staying healthy and safe in college. You never know when you may break your arm playing intramural sports, catch the flu from your dorm mate or have your allergies flare up. Having the best health insurance for students can cover the cost of medical expenses like doctor visits, prescription medications and emergency services.
Yes, college students can stay on a parent’s health insurance plan until age 26. People under 26 can live elsewhere and even be married but still stay on a parent’s health plan.
Colleges and universities charge a premium for student health insurance plans (SHIP). You may qualify for free healthcare if you meet eligibility requirements for low-income health insurance like Medicaid.
California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia have tax penalties if you don’t have health insurance. Vermont has a health insurance mandate, but no tax penalty is involved. The Affordable Care Act initially included a tax penalty for not having health insurance in all states, but Congress removed the tax penalty.
Information provided on Forbes Advisor is for educational purposes only. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved, or otherwise endorsed by our partners.
Deputy Editor, InsuranceLes Masterson is a deputy editor and insurance analyst at Forbes Advisor. He has been a journalist, reporter, editor and content creator for more than 25 years. He has covered insurance for a decade, including auto, home, life and health. Before covering insurance, Les was a news editor and reporter for Patch and Community Newspaper Company and also covered health care, mortgages, credit cards and personal loans for multiple websites.
Was this article helpful?
Share your feedback Send feedback to the editorial team Thank You for your feedback! Something went wrong. Please try again later.© 2024 Forbes Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Forbes Advisor editorial team is independent and objective. To help support our reporting work, and to continue our ability to provide this content for free to our readers, we receive compensation from the companies that advertise on the Forbes Advisor site. This compensation comes from two main sources. First, we provide paid placements to advertisers to present their offers. The compensation we receive for those placements affects how and where advertisers’ offers appear on the site. This site does not include all companies or products available within the market. Second, we also include links to advertisers’ offers in some of our articles; these “affiliate links” may generate income for our site when you click on them. The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content on Forbes Advisor. While we work hard to provide accurate and up to date information that we think you will find relevant, Forbes Advisor does not and cannot guarantee that any information provided is complete and makes no representations or warranties in connection thereto, nor to the accuracy or applicability thereof. Here is a list of our partners who offer products that we have affiliate links for.
