Should I purchase student travel insurance as primary or secondary?

Question

I am moving to the Netherlands to begin grad school for 2 years.

I am currently paying for an individual health insurance policy provided by BCBS. I have had this policy for 3 years.

I have no health issues, take no medication, am young and a picture of health. I.e. I'm very cheap to insure.

However my rates are steadily increasing and my coverage is c**p and I loathe BCBS just on principle. There are some very good insurance policies available to foreign students in the Netherlands that offer great coverage.

I'm tempted to purchase a policy as primary and then cancel my BCBS.

This is a risk if I no longer have a student status and I need to renew the student policy. In this case, if return to the US, I'll need to get another US individual policy.

I'm afraid that I won't be able to get similar coverage for the rates I pay now (under$200/month)

I don't want to pay for two policies, the more expensive one being even more useless than it is now while I'm overseas.

Answer 1

Since most domestic policies do not cover at all if you are out of the country the BCBS policy will be totally useless to you and you'll be wasting the premium.

The premium for a policy generally has nothing to do with how long you have had it so the premium when you get back will be the same as the premium if you kept the policy in force. The only exception would be if your health condition changes or if the same policy is no longer available for new applications.