Buy Your Insurance

Enrolment, in student insurance, is a condition of enrolment for international students at Purdue University and is MANDATORY. You don’t have a choice of provider- you must purchase it from the nominated insurer.

The Annual Plan is for $1718 (2024-25 prices) and you need to pay this separately (i.e. it does not get added to the University Billing statement like Tuition and Housing) plus there is a 3% service fee for paying by credit card. You can avoid this charge only if you have a US Bank account. In order to buy the plan follow this guide– no SSN is required. A summary of the benefits & costs is found here.

Unfortunately, the PUSH website does not detail much and the insurers website is just a mess. There are no clear instructions with choices for dental and vision seemingly muddying the issue. So let me clarify, the Student Insurance is a combined Medical and Dental Policy. You don’t need to buy the separate Dental policy (which is only applicable to those students who have gotten a waiver from buying the Medical insurance if already covered under another pre-existing US issued Medical insurance). Since this doesn’t apply to the vast majority of International Students- just ignore that Dental option.

If you are under 19; you get extra benefits for Vision under the main Medical policy (which are outlined as the Paediatric Vision Services). After turning 19, vision benefits cease. You may also opt for the optional Vision policy at extra cost- but I didn’t think it was good value and, like most parents, opted against buying this additional Vision policy.

Policy coverage starts August 1st and provides full coverage inside all of the US (so it covers your child on their travels outside West Lafayette too during the coverage period). Injury or Sickness outside the United States, except for a Medical Emergency when travelling for academic study abroad programs or pleasure, is not covered. If you need to visit PUSH before the August 1st start date, you will need to pay for any costs personally.

When Buying the Main policy or any extra Insurance it will ask you for a US Address. If, like most students, you haven’t been allocated your room yet, you should just insert the PUSH Health Centre address until the time you are allocated your dorm. The address can always be updated later on the insurer’s website.

I would recommend paying for the Annual plan. Although you can enrol separately for Fall and Spring/Summer, it is more advantageous to purchase the Annual plan. Students must meet the eligibility requirements only once if the annual plan is purchased. When purchasing Fall and Spring/Summer separately, the eligibility must be met at the beginning of each coverage period. In the event of a serious illness or injury prohibiting a student from returning to class for Spring/Summer, charges incurred after January 1st would not be covered due to ineligibility for insurance.

Sometimes paying for this using an credit card issued in India was a problem for Indian parents in our year- Try changing browsers- Firefox/Chrome/Edge and/or using different cards. If you still fail, you may need to ask your relatives outside India to pay on your behalf. Otherwise, just buy it after you land and open your kid’s US bank account.

Those international students who have not purchased insurance by the deadline will have a hold placed on their academic record and will incur a $200 late fee. You must visit the Student Insurance office in PUSH, Rooms G11 or G13 if you need to enrol after the deadline date.

You will need to create THREE user accounts; one at AHP (broker); one at UHC (main medical insurance company) and a third one on Delta site for the Dental Insurance.

You can setup the UHC/Healthsafe account online only once coverage starts i.e. after Aug 1^st. So anytime after 1^st August, once your Insurance cover has started & your policy generated visit AHP. The AHP login gives a link to print a Letter of coverage. On this letter, the student insurance ID number mentioned is to be used as the SRID when you create an account on the UHC site. Then one can follow the link from https://purdueship.myahpcare.com/ “how to create UHC account” to get into UHC portal and print a letter for confirmation of coverage (for initial PUSH use). The ID card is not generated yet. One can request a physical ID card be mailed also from there. See this on how to order the ID Card.

If you had used the Push Health Centre to buy your insurance, you can now update your address and contact information with AHP, by logging into your account and clicking My Account, then choosing “View/Edit My Info” and following the instructions.

The Delta (dental insurer) account can be opened here.

Click Create an Account

Step 1.  Choose  “I am a member or adult dependent and have coverage with Delta Dental “

Step 2. Fill in your details- The Member ID will be 88 followed by the 7 digit Number of your Student Insurance ID Number that you were given on AHP Coverage Letter or the SR number on United ID card (both are the same)

Step 3. Click Register

Then it will validate and take you to an account creation screen. You will choose Username/password and 3 security question and answers.

Now here some of you may face an issue (like I did), when you click submit the first time, it may return an error message- some system problem etc. You should just choose another user name with all other details same and try to submit. I succeeded like this on the second attempt. So if you tried with user name “JohnSmith” then you got an error- you should change to say “JohnWilliamSmith”…. then remember to always use the second username to log in!

For the student, Purdue’s Medical policy starts August 1st. If you need medical coverage prior to that date, you will have to purchase a travel policy from an outside source. Purdue’s coverage also does not offer any travel insurance benefits such as loss of baggage/travel disruption etc.

For the parent(s), you will need Travel insurance (as Medical costs in the US can bankrupt you!)- buy it locally in your country for your travel period OR buy an Annual multi trip cover which lasts for entire year- see worldtrips.com which I used.

The University does not assume responsibility for loss of money or valuables or damage to property. They strongly recommend a student to make arrangements for insurance protection against such losses. Similarly if you are living off-campus, most landlords have insurance that covers the property but does not include tenant belongings. Renters insurance is a way to protect yourself in the event of theft, fire or other scenarios that cause damage to your belongings.

Since my son had a laptop/mobile and other items, I thought it would be wise to cover him for any losses. After researching this, I found this which is between $7-$11 a month (depending on the cover you take) to be a good fit and got him covered. So far, thankfully, he has had no reason to claim, so I can’t testify as to their claims process. This is an entirely personal decision on whether you want to get the cover or not.