Health insurance benefits for international students in UK

All the international students who are newly enrolled at any course at a British university usually see a health insurance fee charged on their tuition bills. As with all foreign countries, health insurance is mandatory for domestic and international students. Since you will be staying there for a long period of time i.e. around two to three years, you will need a health cover to pay for all the medical costs. The reason why everyone is asked to pay for insurance coverage is that healthcare is very expensive abroad. Without an insurance, no student will be able to pay for the medical costs on their own.

State laws in the UK require that all students have medical insurance, domestic as well as international. To meet the legal obligations, the university enrolls and bills all eligible students for the college’s Student Insurance Plan.

International students are required to purchase the student medical insurance offered by the university and they may not be allowed to buy insurances independently. This is because the short-term and temporary medical insurance plans offered to international students and visitors by insurance companies are not considered comparable to the student medical insurance required as per the UK state and university regulations.

So as an international student it is best to pay for the health insurance fee required to be paid with the tuition fee. Usually, the university charges you per semester for the health insurance, but they might also ask you to pay an upfront fee for the whole year at the tuition fee payment time.

The plan offers benefits that include hospital room board, in-patient, and out-patient, surgical procedures, laboratory charges, mental health services, physician visits, consultant visits, ambulance, emergency care etc. These might depend from university to university.

If you are a student-athlete, you need to refer to the health services of the college about sports injury coverage.