A forward-thinking UNLV Prelaw student recently asked a great question about health insurance, which I've paraphrased here:
Once I become a full time law students, how will I be able to get insurance? Will it be expensive? How good is the insurance?
The short answer is that there is no short answer. The first plan of attack is to check with your parents. You may be able to continue your coverage under their plan, depending on your age, your enrollment status, and your folks' insurance carrier's rules on these things.
If this doesn't pan out, you'll want to contact your law school. Indeed, this is something you'll want to investigate when you're choosing your law school. Each law school has a different plan for covering its students. Unless you've got a scholarship package that includes this coverage, you'll probably have to pay a premium for it. The premiums and coverage will vary by school.
That said, most states do not currently require you to have health insurance if you don't want it. While international students are typically required to carry this kind of coverage, domestic students are often free to decide for themselves whether or not to have health insurance coverage during their law school years. You can find out the status of these requirements on a state-by-state basis by visiting the
Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's website.
Once you've narrowed down your list of schools, it is a good idea to check their websites for information about health insurance. You can find links to the ABA Accredited Law Schools on the
ABA's website, and a list including other law schools can be found on the
LSAC website.
