Required Health Insurance
Who is required to have health insurance?
- Graduate students enrolled in 6 or more credit hours in an on-campus or blended delivery program.
- All graduate students classified as Graduate Assistants (GAs), regardless of credit hours.
- All international students.
- Students enrolled in School of Medicine graduate programs.
*Students in fully online/distance programs are automatically waived from this requirement. These students must enroll in the plan voluntarily.
Health Insurance
Certain students are required to have coverage and will be automatically enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) unless they waive by the deadline, while SHIP enrollment is also available for all other students.
This includes:
- Graduate students enrolled in six (6) or more credit hours or full-time equivalent (such as special enrollment status) in an on-campus or blended delivery program, as well as students in professional programs such as medical school.
- All graduate students classified as Graduate Assistants (GAs), regardless of credit hours, are also included.
*Students enrolled in the Joseph F. Rice School of Law are excluded from these requirements unless they are international students or student athletes.
More information about the student groups required to have health insurance can be found on the Student Health and Well-Being website.
Please contact the Student Health Insurance office if you have any questions regarding health insurance by email at sahiao@mailbox.sc.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
Early class registration and early activation of coverage before each semester is the key! The first step is to enroll in 6 credit hours to qualify for the mandatory insurance. (See instructions regarding voluntary insurance if you will enroll in less than 6 credit hours.) AHP sends notification emails instructing students to enroll/accept the insurance or waive/opt out. You must enroll/accept the insurance before August 1 (Fall) and before January 1 (Spring) to keep continuous coverage.
Full-time PhD* students and students hired as Graduate Assistants are eligible for the health insurance subsidy. Refer to the Health Insurance Subsidy page for more information.
*Due to budgetary concerns, non-PhD doctoral students are not eligible for the subsidy unless hired as graduate assistants.
If your program is formally identified as being fully online, the mandatory insurance requirement is automatically waived. (Students enrolled in a fully online program have a Distance Education concentration showing on their my.sc.edu profile.)
Students meeting all criteria listed below need to voluntarily enroll through the Z-Status portal on the AHP website:
- US Citizen
- enrolling in 1-5 credit hours
- approved for Z-Status for the current semester
- not hired as a graduate assistant
- want the insurance coverage
Notes:
International students do not need to enroll voluntarily. You are automatically set up with the mandatory insurance. However, you will need to respond to the link in the AHP notification email to either accept or waive out of the coverage.
Graduate Assistants whose hire has been fully approved through the HR process will automatically receive the mandatory insurance. You do not need to voluntarily enroll in the plan; however, you will need to respond to the link in the AHP notification email to either accept or waive out of the coverage. (Note the exception for US Citizens in fully online programs)
While insurance coverage is mandatory for most graduate students, anyone who is covered under another insurance plan may waive/opt out of the University Student Health Insurance if the other plan provides comparable (or better) coverage. Details are provided on the University Health Services Waive Out webpage.
Note that waiving the student health plan leaves you ineligible for the full-time PhD and GA insurance subsidy. (The university acknowledges and appreciates subsidy-eligible students accepting the financial responsibility of waiving the insurance when other coverage is available.)
When a qualifying event occurs (e.g., loss of other coverage or an actively enrolled student arriving to the US from another country mid-semester), enroll through the sc.myahpcare.com/enrollment portal for Students with a Qualifying Life Event. Contact support@ahpcare.com for more information.
Only the student is covered by the mandatory insurance and the subsidy. However, you may voluntarily enroll your dependents in the AHP Health Insurance plan AFTER you have enrolled and accepted your insurance coverage. Payment for dependent coverage is made directly to the insurance company.