HEALTH INSURANCE FOR TAs AND GAs

When you are a TA or GA you get super health benefits, probably some of the best that a regular old employee can get anywhere in the country these days. I chose NJ Plus, which you don't have to pay extra for and as long as you have a primary care physician to get referrals from, it is little hassle. Sure, there were delays and processing challenges common to all insurance policies, but you get lots of bang for no buck. Prescription coverage is also excellent.

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR FELLOWS

Good news: Rutgers now provides free "major medical" insurance for history department students on Rutgers fellowships. (If for whatever reason you are not on a Rutgers fellowship or TAship, we recommend paying the extra $200/semester for major medical coverage. "Basic medical" is all Rutgers requires students to have, but it might not be adequate if you need serious treatment). The major medical plan is pretty good, but it still excludes treatment for some conditions like allergies. So if you're me and you have lots of allergies and take lots of medicine for them and even go to a special allergy doctor, the University Health Plan offers you diddly. If you've already been a TA, you can COBRA your NJ Plus for about $400/month. Try living on your stipend after you deduct that! You can use Hurtado (the student health center near the History Department) for cuts, bruises, colds, and things like that. You can probably use it for other things as well, but I've not!

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR STUDENTS WITH EXTERNAL FELLOWSHIPS

To the university's credit, there is an alternative health plan that they provide to all medical students and some graduate students who have outside fellowships that support them for a year or more. Because I have one of those fellowships, the university has picked me up on this plan called the UMDNJ Postdoc Rutgers Graduate Fellows Student Insurance Plan. It costs them less than $200/month and is decent coverage. If you are offered an external fellowship, you are probably eligible to receive this health insurance package. You might just get it automatically, or you might have to make a lot of phone calls and push for it. Check with the Graduate School and make sure before you agree to pass on your Rutgers funding, because that leaves you in a position to argue for insurance if you need to. If you are an international student on fellowship, you have to buy the Major Medical Plan unless you submit a form to the International Student Office which proves that you are covered by another plan. You should definitely do this and save some money if you are on an external fellowship. If you want dental insurance as an external fellow, you will be offered a plan which costs about $400/year. At least this year, it was also possible to go without for the fall semester and then sign on in January for $200, but they probably won't tell you this in August.

Written by Jen Manion and (a few bits) by Karen Routledge.