Opting Out and Appeals

The university requires that all students registered for nine or more on-campus semester hours and all students doing study abroad, have adequate health insurance while attending NIU. Therefore, you are automatically covered and charged the fee for medical insurance on your tuition account.

The university is obligated by contract with an insurance vendor to provide a roster of all insured students under the plan. This roster must be submitted at the beginning of the semester to assure that claims are paid in a timely manner. The roster cannot be submitted until after an established cancellation deadline, so that we can determine which students should be covered by the plan and exclude the students who have declined coverage by completing the on-line waiver process.

Procedures and deadlines for cancellation are published in a timely and public manner. Information is included in the undergraduate and graduate catalogs, in the semester schedule of classes booklet, handed out at orientation programs, included in billing emails sent from the student insurance office at time of billing, included in the tuition bill mailed to the student, listed on the bursar’s statement in MyNIU under term detail, included in ads in the Northern Star and posted on the student insurance website.

Filing an appeal is not a guarantee that the insurance fee will be removed from your tuition account. When you file an appeal, you must fill out the appeal form, provide proof of health insurance coverage and write a letter to the appeal committee explaining the extenuating circumstance that prevented you from canceling your insurance within the required time frame.

These three documents then go to the appeals board who will review them and make a decision on whether or not you will be allowed to cancel the insurance. Their decision is final and binding.