UDC’s Required Criteria for Adequate Health Insurance

UDC’s criteria for adequate health insurance are designed to assure that all students have access to quality, timely, confidential, and affordable medical and mental health care, and are protected against costs that could undermine their education, financial or personal well-being.

The criteria are subject to change each academic year.

University Health Services (UHS) in accordance with the ACA law determines the criteria based on their ongoing, careful review of the health care needs and experiences of UDC students, the ways various health insurance plans work and don’t work for our students and in the DC metropolitan area (as well as for study abroad and other travel opportunities), and local and national health insurance trends and options.

We strongly urge ALL students to consider the benefits of the SHIP if they are uninsured or unable to obtain a quality health insurance as they make plans for the academic year.

All students will be required to purchase the Student Health Insurance Plan, unless they can demonstrate that they have an alternate U.S. based insurance plan that meets all 5 of the following criteria to waive the SHIP:

1. Is provided by a company licensed to do business in the United States, with a U.S. claims payment office and a U.S. phone number.
2. Has a maximum benefit of at least $500,000.
3. Policy in force the first day of class and effective for the duration of the academic year (through the following August), or until their program ends if graduating.
4. Provides coverage for medical and mental health care where they are attending school (DC metropolitan area) at a reimbursement rate of at least 70% of U.S. based “reasonable and customary” charges. Coverage must include inpatient and outpatient emergency, urgent, and routine care.
5. Plan is complaint with the laws of the U.S. Affordable Care Act. Coverage must not carry plan exclusions prohibited by U.S. federal law – Affordable Care Act of 2010 (e.g., pre-existing conditions clauses and family planning provisions like contraceptives). Please ask your insurance agent if your plan is ACA complaint as this is mandatory requirement to receive an approved waiver.