This year's college graduates are unrealistic about healthinsurance options post-school, according to an April 2012 survey of 526 recentand soon-to-be college grads conducted by eHealthInsurance andKelton Research.

The survey showed that 82 percent of students think their firstjobs after college will provide health insurance. But in reality,only half of this number (41 percent) of recent grads said theirjobs actually provide insurance.

Further, 72 percent of students and 75 percent of recent gradssaid they would rather go without health insurance than default ontheir student loans. And this makes sense, because the survey alsoreported that 68 percent of students and 62 percent of recent gradsare afraid they won't be able to pay their student loans at somepoint during their 20s.

The reason for this student loan freak-out might be thatstudents estimate they will need to earn an average salary of$81,600 per year (recent grads said they would need to earn$61,800) to feel financially secure. But former college studentswho graduated in the past 3 years only reported making $21,900 peryear on average.

More than 6 in 10 students are afraid they won't find a jobafter graduation and about the same number of recent grads saidthey had already run into trouble finding a job or worried theywouldn't find a job at some point in their twenties.

Other notable survey findings include:

• About 40 percent of students and 38 percent of recent gradssaid health insurance was “non-negotiable” and would be more likelyto pass on a job that didn't offer health insurance than any otherbenefit
• More than half (51 percent) of both current students and recentgrads think it's more important for new college graduates to take ajob they don't like in order to get health insurance than to take ajob they like but that doesn't provide coverage
• Parents of current students or recent grads believe theirchildren would feel financially secure with an annual income of$54,200 on average.