ObamaCare (Part I)

As a penny-pinching student from the University of Manchester living on the UK government's student loan, expenses at the University of California, Berkeley was breaking my bank. In the third year of my degree, Manchester sent me abroad to America for a year to participant in an exchange program. Berkeley policy states that each student must be covered by health insurance provided by companies with headquarters in the states or, in other words, American companies. I purchased the default UC SHIP (student health insurance plan), drawing US$1626.00 from my account. 

It was the first day of school. Having found my way to all my morning classes, there was only one left to sit through in the afternoon. Sat in a small classroom of twenty or so seats, I engaged in a small talk with a Chinese guy next to me. My small talk was more like a rant of the steep SHIP payment. The Chinese guy agreed and revealed that he didn't purchase SHIP. 

"How much is your insurance plan?" I curiously asked, assuming he's found value with another insurance company.

To my surprise, he didn't. He isn't insured. I pressed on to see if he could enlighten me.

"It can work. But it takes some intuition," he replied without making eye contact with me. 

It seemed all too awkward for me to ask anything else, though I had a great urge to. At that, the lecturer came in and asked if everyone was ready for Algebra One. Damn, I was in the wrong class! Embarrassingly, I stood up to make my way towards the door, which seemed like miles away when the whole class' attention was enough to burn a hole in the back of my head. Neither did what the lecturer said help: "Looks like she's not ready for some algebra." The whole class laughed and the door now seemed light-years away. 

Nonetheless, I made it to my last class of the day, Quantum Mechanics.