Health Insurance FAQs for Graduate Students
The frequently asked questions below address common questions about university-provided health insurance for graduate students. If you need further assistance, contact us at APGradStudies@umassd.edu . We work closely with the Bursar’s Office, Health Services, and other campus offices to help resolve questions.
All full-time and three-quarter-time graduate and undergraduate students are required by Massachusetts law to have health insurance that includes coverage for outpatient care in the UMass Dartmouth area. For graduate students, full-time is nine credits or more of enrollment in a semester; three-quarter-time is seven credits or more of enrollment in a semester. The health insurance must provide minimum essential coverage as defined by the Affordable Care Act for the entire year.
Graduate students may be considered full-time without formally enrolling in 9 credits, usually if they are finished with coursework and are working on a project, thesis, or dissertation. If you are in this position, you must submit the Graduate Student – Full-Time Enrollment Status Consideration Request Form and obtain the necessary approvals to be eligible for SHIP. With an approved full-time status form, you must ask Bursars@umassd.edu to bill your account for SHIP. Once your account is charged, you can contact info@univhealthplans.com to request a member ID card.
If you are enrolled as a full-time or three-quarter-time student and have not submitted a waiver form, you will be automatically billed for SHIP. Domestic students with comparable coverage who submit a waiver will have the charge removed. International students covered by a U.S.-approved health insurance plan should contact University Health Plans as soon as possible.
All international students are automatically billed and enrolled in SHIP coverage effective August 1 unless they apply for a waiver by contacting University Health Plans.
Domestic full-time or three-quarter-time students are automatically billed for SHIP but are not automatically enrolled. Once enrolled, coverage is retroactive. To ensure coverage, students must complete the online enrollment form as soon as possible.
Domestic students must submit a new enrollment form each academic year.
Students graduating or separating from the University after the fall term are not insured after December 31. To remain insured for both fall and spring semesters, students must be registered for both semesters and maintain the required number of credits. Students who are not registered or do not submit an approved full-time status form for the spring semester are removed from SHIP.
The University pays 50% of the individual health insurance premium for the semester in which a student is employed in an eligible teaching or research assistant position. The subsidy may have tax implications and may be less than 50%.
Eligible assistantship categories include Teaching Assistants (Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Studio Assistants, and Clinical Assistants) and Research Assistants (Research Assistants, Distinguished Doctoral Fellows, Doctoral Fellows, and Distinguished Art Fellows) with approved contracts for 10 hours or more per week.
The University health insurance subsidy can only be applied to the university-offered individual health insurance plan.
The subsidy applies only to individual health insurance plans and does not extend to family coverage. Students may purchase dependent coverage through a separate enrollment process, but dependent coverage is not subsidized.
The Office of the Associate Provost for Graduate Studies provides a list of eligible students to the Bursar’s Office approximately two weeks after the add/drop deadline. The Bursar’s office will verify that eligible students included in the list have been enrolled in a university health insurance plan and will apply credits (50% of the premium) to the students’ accounts.
Please note: Receipt of health insurance subsidy may have tax implications. For international students, the tax implications may depend on any tax treaty their countries have with the United States. In some cases, the University is required to withhold tax from the subsidy credit, and you may therefore receive a smaller subsidy credit on your account.
Students who believe they qualify for a University subsidy but do not see the credit on their account should contact APGradStudies@umassd.edu to verify your status as an eligible teaching or research assistant.
Students are encouraged to review their account balance, calculate the value of their tuition credit, and if eligible, the 50% insurance subsidy, deduct that from their balance, and pay the remainder by their payment due date to avoid a late payment fee. To view the most up-to-date information in your account, sign into COIN and select the Finance tab, then select Financial Center, Account summary for the relevant semester, and view all charges, credits, payments and financial aid.
Click Account Activity tab to see list of semesters. Click "Print Term Statement" to the left of the relevant semester. That will automatically open up a PDF of the statement to print or view.