2,910: Health Insurance for Graduate Assistants

Last Revised: December 2003

All graduate students paid on graduate assistantship contracts for 10 hours per week or more, and enrolled for six credits or more per semester, are to be provided with student health insurance (see university website for information on the coverage provided under the student health insurance policy). To be eligible for health insurance coverage, a graduate assistant must be enrolled for a minimum of six credits in the fall and spring semesters. There is no minimum credit requirement for summer.

The health insurance cost is to be paid by the source of funding providing the salary for the graduate assistantship. Health insurance costs for graduate assistantships paid from the UNR instructional budget (1101 accounts) will be paid from the centrally administered 1101 pool of funds for health insurance. For graduate assistantships paid from other state appropriations, from grant accounts, or from self supporting accounts, the appropriation or account paying the salary of the graduate student will provide the funding for the health insurance.

Health insurance must be made available to the graduate assistant; a funding source cannot opt out of providing the health insurance because of the cost.

A student on a graduate assistantship may waive the insurance by signing a waiver stipulating that the graduate assistant has other health insurance coverage. A unit may not request that a student waive the insurance as a condition of being hired as a graduate assistant.

The cost of the health insurance premium paid for each student on a graduate assistantship by the university will be taxable income to the student and will be noted on the first paycheck of each semester and on the student's W2 earnings reports.