Am I eligible to waive the Gallagher student health insurance plan?

According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Lesley University policy, all undergraduate students registered for 9 credits or more, including programs at the DeMello International Center, must be covered by a comprehensive health insurance program.

Also, any on-campus graduate students registered for 6 credits or more, including programs at the DeMello International Center, must be covered by a comprehensive health insurance program.

If you intend to waive the student health insurance offered by the university and use your own health insurance, the company must be a U.S.-based carrier. 

Qualifying Health Plans:

• Being a U.S.-based carrier means that the insurance carrier issuing the plan is a U.S. or domestic company, regardless of where the policy is purchased or where the claims are processed.
• Carriers outside of the U.S. are foreign or foreign-based insurance companies (for example, non-domestic or non-U.S. companies), including those companies with satellite offices in the United States.
• Some foreign insurance companies have numerous companies and subsidiaries worldwide. A foreign carrier may have a U.S. subsidiary, as well as subsidiaries in other countries.
• Policies purchased from the U.S. subsidiary qualify for a waiver, but policies purchased from foreign subsidiaries do not qualify for a waiver (unless the foreign study abroad exception applies).
• Those international students whose sponsoring institutions have a signed agreement with Lesley University that complies with the university’s health insurance waiver requirements, or international students with a plan for which their health insurance company’s primary home office is based in the United States and the policy provides comparable coverage to the University Student Health Insurance Plan are eligible to waive. Travel insurance plans and short-term limited duration plans are not comparable.

Non-comparable health plans include:

• Those that only provide emergency services 
• International plans (includes plans not filed in the US) 
• Travel insurance plans 
• Health care sharing plans (includes Christian Ministries & Liberty Health Share) 
• Out-of-state Medicaid plans 
• Out-of-State HMOs or EPOs 
• Plans from insurance companies not located within the United States 
• Prescription discount plans

On-Campus International Students: 

All on-campus international students must enroll in the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan with the exception of:

• Those international students whose sponsoring institution has a signed agreement with Lesley University that complies with the health insurance waiver requirements.
• International students with a plan for which their health insurance company’s primary home office is based in the United States, and the policy provides comparable coverage to the university student health insurance plan.

International students who qualify to waive the insurance based on the information above must go to gallagherstudent.com/lesley to waive the insurance charge. All other international students are required to enroll in the health insurance plan and are not eligible for a waiver.

Online, Off-Campus, and Low-Residency Students:

If you’re enrolled in an online program in Massachusetts (regardless of your state of residency), in a program that’s delivered at an off-campus location, or in a program delivered in a low-residency format, you’re not eligible to participate in the Student Health Insurance Plan or an alternate health plan.

For more information, visit our webpage on student health and dental insurance.