Health Care Coverage for Veterans and Servicemembers

Students receiving VA healthcare benefits can choose to waive the Columbia Student Health Plan—sometimes called The Columbia Plan—if their VA benefits are comparable or better than the coverage from the Columbia Student Health Plan.

Students should prioritize filing this waiver as soon as they have access to their respective campus health portals because the Columbia Student Health Plan is an automatic enrollment for all students unless they elect to waive the plan. If you don't want to be charged for the plan, follow the steps below for each respective campus.


 

Instructions by Campus

Students attending programs organized under the Morningside or Manhattanville campuses will need to visit the Columbia Health webpage on waiving the student health plan to learn about waiver criteria, instructions for using the health portal, processing times, and other details. Be mindful of the term deadlines to submit a waiver.

When ready to begin your waiver request, visit the Columbia Health Patient Portal to enter the required information. Have ready your subscriber and insurance information as well as your insurance card, which you will need to upload as a photo. 

Waivers are not guaranteed just because a request has been submitted. Please allow up to 30 business days for Columbia Health to process the request and return a decision. 

Students attending programs organized under CUIMC, or "the medical campus," will need to visit the Student Health on Haven webpage on waiving the student health plan to learn about waiver criteria, instructions for using the health portal, enrollment windows, and other details.

When ready to begin your waiver request, visit the Student Health on Haven Portal to enter the required information. Have ready your subscriber and insurance information as well as your insurance card, which you will need to upload. 

Waivers are not guaranteed just because a request has been submitted. Please allow up to 14 business days for Student Health on Haven to process the request and return a decision.