About

Your health is essential to achieving your goals at Cornell. Access to health care and adequate health insurance are essential to your health. Without adequate coverage, unexpected medical expenses could alter your future dramatically. 

That is why Cornell University requires all students to have quality health insurance. For more than three decades this policy has proven to serve students well. It gives you, and your family, the peace of mind that comes from knowing you are well-insured.

Cornell University Policy on Mandatory Student Health Insurance

Following a decision by the Board of Trustees in 1974, it is Cornell University policy that all full-time students must have health insurance coverage while enrolled at Cornell.

"There shall be a mandatory health insurance plan with 'waiver option,' effective September 1, 1974. All students will be covered and billed for the premium, subject to individual application for waiver. The basis for waiver will be that (1) the individual has other insurance coverage, (2) agrees to maintain other coverage while a student at Cornell University, and (3) provides proof of other coverage along with the waiver application. The plan will permit students to enroll spouses and dependents for this coverage." (Excerpted from the Executive Committee meeting minutes of December 9, 1993. The original mandatory health insurance program was approved on May 14, 1974.)

In order to assure that all students have health insurance, each year the Student Insurance Office is required to enroll all students in the Cornell Student Health Insurance Plan, except for those who demonstrate that they have comparable health insurance.

Because individual situations change, students are required each year to enroll in or waive the Student Health Insurance Plan. The intention of Cornell's "hard waiver" policy is to ensure that students have the health care coverage they need every year they are enrolled full-time at Cornell.

Cornell's Criteria for Adequate Health Insurance

Students must enroll in the Student Health Insurance Plan unless they have coverage through another plan that meets all six of Cornell's criteria for adequate health insurance. 

To meet Cornell's criteria, an alternate plan must:

1. be provided by a company licensed to do business in the United States, with a US claim payment office and US phone number
2. provide coverage in the Ithaca area for outpatient and inpatient medical care. (A policy that provides coverage in the Ithaca area on an “emergency care only” basis does not meet this requirement.)*
3. provide coverage in the Ithaca area for outpatient and inpatient mental health care *
   
4. have a maximum benefit of at least $500,000 per year
5. remain in force as long as you are a registered student at Cornell
6. cover pre-existing conditions
   

* It may be helpful to you to review a list of Ithaca-area health care providers to determine whether any participate in another insurance plan you might be considering. The Ithaca-Area Yellow Pages has up-to-date lists of providers. You may also want to consult Cayuga Medical Center (CMC)'s Physician Finder.]