Health Insurance Information for Summer 2026

How to Get Summer Healthcare:

Summary: if you have or had an appointment or fellowship this spring or summer, you probably qualify to have 87% of your insurance costs and many of your fees waived for the summer! You may need to enroll in a class over the summer to receive the waiver (0 credit hour classes count). There are three main ways to get healthcare over the summer without having to pay the full price out of pocket:

You have an assistantship and are registered for summer classes;
You have an assistantship but aren’t registered for summer classes; or
You don’t have an assistantship, but you qualify for the summer automatic waiver.

Below you will find information on what you need to do for each of those categories. Please keep an eye out for any emails sent by the Student Health Insurance Office. If you have any questions, please email grievance@uigeo.org.

1. You have a waiver-generating Summer appointment and are registered for classes: You don’t need to do anything because the process should happen automatically and you should be assessed the appropriate fees and waivers.

2. You have a waiver-generating Summer appointment and are not registered for classes: You have to sign up for summer health insurance. You have to purchase an extension, so you will see the fee (same as the previous semester) applied to your student account, but then the 87% fee waiver is applied. You should see the waivers applied to your account within 10 business days. The enrollment period for summer health insurance begins on May 16th and the link can be found on the Student Health Insurance website when the enrollment period opens.

3. You don’t have a waiver-generating Summer appointment, but had a waiver-generating Spring appointment: You qualify for the summer automatic waiver! In order to access, you must enroll in summer courses. It can be a 0 credit course if your department offers one, but you still must enroll! See below for more information.

4. You don’t have a waiver-generating Summer appointment and did not have a waiver-generating Spring appointment: Purchase a summer extension.

Summer Automatic Waivers

What is the summer automatic waiver and how does that relate to healthcare?

The summer automatic waiver is for graduate students who hold a waiver-generating appointment in the Spring semester, but don’t have an appointment in the summer.

It includes a tuition waiver as well as the following fee waivers: 87% waiver of the Health Insurance Fee, Service Fee, Academic Facility Maintenance Fund Assessment (AFMFA) Fee, Library/Technology Fee, Transportation Fee, International Student Fee, and Health Service Fee. It is through this that grad workers are able to access healthcare over the summer. For more information on what the summer automatic waiver is, click here. This is not the same as purchasing an extension or a continuation!

Who is eligible?

Any grad worker that held a tuition waiver-generating appointment in Spring 2026, such as a Teaching Assistantship (TA), Graduate Assistantship (GA), Research Assistantship (RA), or Pre-Professional Graduate Assistantship (PGA).

If you have a waiver-generating fellowship in Spring 2026 (comes with tuition and fee waivers) you are eligible for the summer automatic waiver.

If someone has above a 67% appointment (no waivers) for the summer but had a RA, TA, GA, PGA or fellowship (appointments with tuition waivers and fee waivers) in Spring 2026, they are eligible for the summer automatic waiver.

How do I access my summer health care through the summer automatic waiver?

You have to enroll in summer courses. It can be a 0 credit hour course if your department offers one, but you still must enroll. You can either do the full Summer, Summer 1 (S1 starting on May 18th to June 12th), or Summer 2 (S2 starting on June 15th to August 8th). We highly recommend signing up for S1 or full Summer so you are closer to the deadline of the start of enrollment on May 16th.

What about grad students who are graduating?

Summary: Graduated students can purchase insurance and McKinley access for one semester after they graduate but won’t receive any waivers.

Congratulations! This link outlines what you need to do for health insurance over the summer. Because you won't be a student, you can’t register for summer classes to receive the summer automatic waiver. You will have to purchase a continuation of coverage, which should cost $269 per month for up to 90 days.

For dental and vision coverage, you will continue to have that over the summer. You can also extend your access to McKinley Health Center for one semester by paying the extension fee (keep an eye on this chart in case it isn’t updated yet).

How to register for zero credit hours?

Access the Student, Faculty and Staff Self-Service here: https://apps.uillinois.edu/selfservice. You’ll need your Net ID and secondary authentication to log in, so make sure your phone is near you.
From the main menu, click on the “Registration and Record” tab. From the list below, you can click either “Enhanced Registration” or “Classic Registration” to sign up for classes. (We find “Classic Registration” easier.)
If using “Classic Registration,” it’ll give a prompt for which term. Make sure your ticket is open to add a course and that you have chosen the “Summer 2026” term.
On the “Registration” page, click on “Add/Drop Classes.” After you click “Agree” to the Registration Agreement, it’ll take you to two sections: “Current Schedule” and “Add Classes Worksheet.”
Below the “Add Classes Worksheet,” there is a heading of “CRNs.” Using the list of CRNs that will soon be released by the department, type your approved CRN in the submission box. The usage of these CRNs must be evenly distributed to ensure the first few listed are not overused. Please keep an eye on your inbox for this CRN sheet.
- Ask your department for the CRN for Zero credits; it may be attached to a particular professor.
After you submit your CRN, click on the “Submit Changes” button below. a. Make sure the “Cred” field says “0.00” If it does not, click the number, change it to 0.00, then click “Submit Changes.”
Voila! You’ve signed up for summer zero-credit hours!

Important Dates

Estimated Cost

Note: Due to the FICA exception for full time students, it may be less expensive overall to register for 3+ credit hours, if you are employed through the university. See below for details.

Additional Resources

Additional Information

Student Employee FICA Exception

Summary: If you have a summer assistantship, registering for 3+ credit hours over the summer should reduce the taxes you need to pay.

FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) ) tax includes Social Security and Medicare tax withholdings. The relevant thing here is that if you aren’t enrolled in classes and have an assistantship, you may be subject to FICA taxes. To receive the FICA exception, graduate students must enroll for at least 3 credit hours over the summer (in the Fall and Spring semesters, it’s at least 6 credit hours). Even though fees are $17 more to register for 3+ credit hours, it usually saves money to register for 3+ credit hours and get the FICA exception if you have an assistantship.

Health Service Fee

Summary: Grad workers with summer assistantships or summer automatic waivers should have free access to McKinley and the Counseling Center without having to take extra steps.

The Health Service Fee covers your access to McKinley and the Counseling Center and is one of the fees waived if you have an assistantship or the summer automatic waiver. There have been issues in the past for members who registered for under 3 credit hours and had the summer automatic waiver. They weren’t assessed the fee and didn’t appear as having access to McKinley and the Counseling Center. There was a similar issue with the Service Fee. For this summer, the Student Health Insurance Office is rebuilding their form to address this. Stay tuned for more information!

Dental and Vision Insurance

Summary: Grad workers with waiver-generating appointments have year-round dental and vision insurance at no extra cost. This includes summers!

UIUC provides dental insurance through United Healthcare Student Resources for all graduate students. For graduate students with waiver-generating appointments, United Healthcare dental insurance is available at no additional cost. Per the GEO Contract, the University Administration covers the cost of Dental and Vision insurance for TAs, PGAs, RAs, and GAs. To see if your appointment qualifies, check the Graduate College Handbook. For all other graduate students, United Healthcare is available with an annual premium.

Plan information for TAs, GAs, RAs, and PGAs can be found in this plan brochure. All other United Healthcare information (such as coverage details, participating dentists, and claim forms) can be found at https://www.uhcsr.com/.

Along with dental insurance, UIUC also provides vision insurance through EyeMed Vision Care for all graduate students. For graduate students with waiver-generating appointments, EyeMed Vision Care is available at no additional cost. To see if your appointment qualifies, check the Graduate College Handbook. For all other graduate students, EyeMed Vision Care is available with an annual premium. Graduate students may also enroll dependents for coverage during the predetermined enrollment periods. Plan information for TAs, GAs, RAs, PGAs and fellows can be found in this plan brochure. To access your EyeMed Vision account, click on this link.

Graduate students may also enroll dependents for dental and vision coverage during the predetermined enrollment periods (currently not available). This means you can’t enroll dependents in the vision and dental insurance outside the enrollment periods.

Dependent Healthcare

Summary: Grad workers with summer assistantships or summer automatic waivers can be reimbursed for 40% of the health insurance cost for one dependent over the summer.

If a family member or loved one is not eligible for their own insurance, you are allowed to enroll them as a dependent through your University health insurance plan. If you are a TA/GA/RA/PGA or have the summer automatic waiver, the University will pay 40% of the cost of the premium for the coverage of one (1) dependent of the covered graduate employee when dependent coverage is elected.

In order to enroll your dependent in this coverage you have to be enrolled in the University health insurance plan first. Once you are enrolled, you can enroll your dependents by visiting https://si.illinois.edu/forms/adding-dependent. As a reminder, summer healthcare enrollment begins on May 16, 2026 and ends June 19, 2026. You must enroll your dependent during the enrollment period! In order to receive the subsidy, you must first pay the full cost up front, then 4 weeks after the enrollment period ends, you will see the reimbursement in your bank account and in some rare cases you’ll get a check delivered to your house.

Hospital Financial Assistance Program

Summary: Apply for reduced cost care at the local hospitals to help cover costs not handled by insurance.

Did you know that you may be eligible for financial assistance for medical care, even if you are insured? If your annual household income is less than or equal to 400% of the federal poverty line, you could be receiving care at a reduced cost. Both Carle Foundation Hospital and OSF (the two main hospitals in Champaign-Urbana) have assistance programs. You can get more information and apply at the Carle Financial Assistance and the OSF Financial Assistance site.

Community Resources

Summary: There are additional resources in town around healthcare!

Champaign County Health Care Consumers is a local non-profit helping individuals and families access health care. They can help you determine what you are eligible for and walk you through the application process at no charge. They also keep an updated resource guide for healthcare-related concerns. To request assistance, contact cchcc@cchcc-il.org or call (217) 352-6533. They also have compiled resources for local healthcare, including Prescription Assistance, Low Cost Dental Care, Dental Emergencies, and Affordable Mental and Behavioral Health Services. You can find these and more resource guides in English and Spanish at https://www.healthcareconsumers.org/.

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) offers various programs supporting parents as well as services such as fresh produce, child and teen dental care, case management services for HIV/AIDS, and more. CUPHD also collaborates with local organizations to address behavioral health, obesity, and healthy lifestyles. Their website is https://www.c-uphd.org/. CUPHD also runs an Interactive Food Resource Map, which is a comprehensive list of Champaign County food pantries that is updated on a regular basis and includes places to get a hot meal. Their website is https://bit.ly/FoodPantriesCC.

Carle Health provides a range of healthcare services and community resources in Champaign-Urbana. Some of its community initiatives and programs include free nurse home visits for at-risk pregnant women in Champaign-Urbana, postpartum nurse home-visiting program for women delivering at Carle Foundation Hospital, a Mobile Health Clinic, and more. Their website is https://carle.org/services/institutes/community-health-initiatives-overview.

Crisis Nursery is an emergency-based childcare facility in Champaign County open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the community to access with no fees or income eligibility. To request assistance, call (217) 337-2730. Their website is https://crisisnursery.net/.

Hope Springs Counseling Services provides counseling services to youth and families who are experiencing hardship that has affected their mental health. Hope Springs offers a variety of services including both in-person and remote care in individual and group settings, services for students in a school setting, and in-home therapy. Their website is https://hopespringscu.org/. They are located at 701 Devonshire, Suites B16-18, Champaign, IL 61820, and can be reached via phone at (217) 531-2360.

Cunningham Township offers services that connect those in need with substance abuse counseling, prescription assistance, and mental health helplines. It also maintains a list of digital inclusion resources as well as food resource guides for Urbana-Champaign in English, Spanish, and French.

CLU-W Hygiene Pantry provides free hygiene essentials like shampoo, period products, soap, conditioner, laundry supplies, and more. They are open Thursdays from 5 pm to 7 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 12 pm. They are located at the Brokens Administration Building (1776 E Washington St. Urbana, IL 61802). Check out their website for more information!

Summer Health Insurance