FAQ: Waivers

You will be allowed to waive MIT SHIP coverage if you are living on campus or in the Cambridge area and have another comprehensive insurance plan that provides “comparable coverage” in the area.

Yes. Each year, MIT will automatically enroll you in, and bill you for MIT SHIP. At that point, you can waive coverage for the whole academic year. You must submit the waiver form by each year’s deadline to have the charge removed from your bursar’s account.

To waive MIT SHIP, you must be insured by a plan that meets Massachusetts state requirements for “comparable coverage of health services.” This means that your plan must include preventive and primary care, emergency services, surgical services, hospitalization benefits, outpatient services, mental health services, and prescription drugs in the Cambridge area.

New Students - You will receive an email from Gallagher Student Health with the subject line: “Verify Your Gallagher Student Health Account.” This email will contain a link and temporary password you will use to log into the Gallagher Student Health website and create your account.

Use the link and password to log in. You will then be prompted to create a new, unique password. Once you’ve logged on with your new password, follow the directions to submit a waiver request.

Returning Students - You will need to log into the Gallagher platform to submit your waiver if you are a returning student at Gallagher Student Health website.

We do this to make sure students have the coverage they need while they are on campus. Gallagher reviews each waiver request to make sure the student has health insurance that will cover their care if they become sick or injured while in Cambridge. In the past, some students who waived MIT SHIP found that their coverage was not sufficient to cover the care they needed. Some students had to leave school and go home to get the care they needed. Others stayed at school and used expensive out-of-network providers, which left them with expensive bills to pay.

No. The annual Open Enrollment/Waiver period for MIT SHIP occurs in the summer, usually from mid-July to mid-August. 

Outside of the Open Enrollment/Waiver period, you may enroll yourself or family members in MIT SHIP only under certain circumstances known as “qualifying events”

If you buy health insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector, you will be allowed to waive MIT SHIP. You may also be eligible for financial assistance to help you pay for plans available through the Health Connector. Be sure to review these plans carefully before purchasing. Many of them have high deductibles — that’s the amount of your own money you need to pay before the insurance will pay for any care — and this will increase your out-of-pocket costs. In fact, depending on the healthcare services outside of MIT Medical you use during the year, you could end up spending more with a high-deductible Health Connector plan than you would with MIT SHIP.

• If you change your mind during the waiver/open enrollment period, you can rescind your waiver on the Gallagher Student Health website. Click the “edit waiver” button to access your waiver. Once you are taken to your waiver, scroll to the bottom to hit the RESCIND button. You will be automatically enrolled in MIT SHIP.
• Once the waiver/open enrollment period has ended, you can only enroll in MIT SHIP only if you lose your other insurance. This could happen, for example, because you turned 27 and are no longer eligible to be covered under your parent’s plan or because your spouse or parent lost their job and insurance coverage.

If this happens, you will have 30 days to submit a Petition to Add request through the Gallagher Student Health website. Once Gallagher processes your enrollment, we will add the insurance premium fee to your bursar’s account and send you a link to information about downloading your insurance card and using your MIT SHIP coverage. Once you have received confirmation of your MIT SHIP enrollment, you may enroll eligible family members through the same Petition to Add process on the Gallagher Student Health website.