Ask the Gargoyle

What are the advantages of Flagler’s health insurance plans?

By Nicole Goyette

Flagler College provides all students taking six or more credits the option to buy two different health insurance plans: Plan I or Plan II, both from Bollinger Insurance Company. According to Christine Wages, assistant director of student accounts, advantages of these plans are, “it’s a low cost, low maintenance insurance plan.”

Plan I costs $325 a year, and is a lower cost than Plan II. The ratio for deductibles is 60/40. This means that the insurance company pays 60 percent of the fee and you pay the other 40 percent of the fee, which is also known as your “out-of-pocket expense.”

Plan II cost $625 a year and has an 80/20 ratio, which means you pay 20 percent of the fee. Wages says Plan II would be better if you had to go to the doctor once a month because it’s less out-of-pocket each month. Plan II also has a higher catastrophe cap.

An advantage to this plan is that it’s nationwide as long as you go to a doctor in the network. If you are out of state and need a doctor, just find one that’s in the network.

Wages also said that Flagler College students can see Dr. Dudley Baringer, Nurse Holly Doucette and the Nurse Practitioner Georgiann Weaver at no cost, even if you don’t purchase one of these plans. Students must be seen at the campus clinic and would still have to pay the full prescription amount.

Anyone can go online and receive free insurance quotes from other companies, however. Most likely, other individual policies would cost anywhere from $100 to $300 per month, unlike these plans which are one-time fees. Plans purchased for this academic year are effective Aug. 15, 2006 to Aug. 15, 2007.

The business office provides the option to purchase either plan on the payment worksheet sent out for each semester. If a student wants to purchase the plan for spring semester they can do so at an adjusted price.