Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) FAQ - Financial Aid & Scholarships

Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) FAQ - Financial Aid & Scholarships
​We Care About Your Health, Too!
As voted in by students and passed by the UC Regents, the University requires that all students have major medical insurance, and provides the
Berkeley Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP)
to meet this requirement. Students are automatically enrolled in SHIP and the premium is charged on the
CalCentral
account.
Students can choose to keep SHIP or
waive enrollment
if they have comparable coverage that meets the University’s criteria. Note: While all students are eligible to use services at the campus health center, the Tang Center will only accept SHIP insurance.
As part of the waiver decision making process, students should consider how maintaining and/or waiving out of SHIP can impact their financial aid offer. The information below will assist students and families in understanding how being granted a SHIP waiver and/or keeping the SHIP coverage may impact the financial aid budget and awards.
Note: These are general guidelines and may not apply to all students or in all cases.
All graduate and undergraduate students have the cost of health insurance in their standard
Cost of Attendance (COA)
. This expense remains in a student’s COA regardless of being granted a SHIP waiver. Financial aid, including outside resources and waivers, are available to meet all expenses in the COA.
Q: I want to waive out of SHIP. How will my aid change if I waive out of SHIP?
A: The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office will adjust your COA to include the cost of SHIP
and
add a fee waiver to your financial aid package which will apply to the SHIP charge on your student billing account.
The timing of the waiver can impact your awards and the activity on your billing account.
If you are granted a SHIP waiver prior to your aid disbursing, you will not be awarded any additional financial aid.
If you are granted a SHIP waiver after your aid has disbursed, your awards may be reduced to account for the SHIP waiver. This can result in adjustments on your student billing account.
If you were offered a Health Insurance Allowance Grant as part of your financial aid offer and are granted a SHIP waiver, the Health Insurance Allowance Grant will be canceled and you will see a SHIP waiver as part of your financial aid offer.
Q: How will my financial aid change if I decide to enroll in SHIP and/or if my waiver request is denied?
A: Your financial aid offer will include resources to cover the cost of SHIP; although, the type of aid awarded to cover this cost can vary from student to student. For example:
Undergraduate students awarded only loan and/or work-study will likely receive additional loan and/or work to cover the cost of SHIP, if eligible.
Undergraduate students with specific types of grants or scholarships, like Freshman Scholarship, Transfer Scholarship, Berkeley Scholarship, Fiat Lux, or Undergraduate Grant will likely receive grant or scholarship funding to assist with the SHIP expense.
Undergraduate students with conditional financial aid awards may see adjustments to conditional aid packages aligned with their choice to enroll in or waive SHIP, but they will need to complete all requirements for these adjustments to become part of an official financial aid award letter.
Conditional offers
are estimates of financial aid eligibility and are subject to change. ​
Graduate students will be offered additional loan to assist with the cost of SHIP. Department and Fellowship awards can also be used to cover the cost of SHIP.
Q: I am receiving an outside and/or departmental resource to pay for my SHIP coverage. How will this impact my current aid package?
A: Students must report all outside resources, including departmental awards and outside agency awards, to the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office. These awards, including funds provided for SHIP, are considered a resource and must be incorporated into the financial aid package. This may cause a
change to your awards
as the total of all financial aid awards cannot exceed your COA.
Please Note:
UC Berkeley reserves the right to adjust awards to correct any awarding errors. Changes to qualifying information or revisions of federal, state or institutional programs or policies may result in updates to aid eligibility and adjustments of financial aid awards. Information is subject to change.
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