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  Victoria Tai Tai is a second-year microbiology and history student who is vice president of the Society of Automotive Engineering. She believes that UCLA racing and design are part of a complete nutritional diet. Email her at vt@ucla.edu. Click Here for more articles by Victoria Thai

Wanna get screwed by a university policy like everyone else? Then quit reading right now.

I’m talking about Student Health Insurance Plans, the new mandatory health insurance plan in effect starting this fall at UCLA for all students.

There are actually two plans, both hidden under the veil of deceptive acronyms: GSHIP for graduate students and USHIP for undergrads. According to the brochure, “enrollment in these plans is automatic and is considered a part of registration fees.”

That basic mandatory “enrollment” equals $720 a year for graduate students and $534 for undergrads.

And basic it is.

The comprehensive plan includes Medical and Behaviorial Health (including Substance Abuse) benefits but doesn’t cover dental and vision care. For these benefits, students have to pay another $186, which makes the plan cost a grand total of $720 a year for undergrads.

There’s a whole compendium of prices and plans one can shop for, including dependent and extension plans. But regardless, they are all very limited.

Considering the shortcoming of the SHIP plans – plans most people on campus probably don’t need – there’s no reason why they should be mandatory.

Charging 700 buckaroos from more than 36,000 people adds up to more than $25,000,000 annually. With that kind of money, we could build UCLA a new money-magnet medical center. We could even install our own UCLA lottery. Oh wait, that’s illegal.

Like the rest of us who can think of better ways to spend $700, I demanded to waive out. After all, wouldn’t a brand-new TV set with a DVD sound nice?

In order to waive out I had to ask around the Ashe Center until I was directed to a tiny office in the fourth floor that administers this plan. The pamphlets and information for waiver procedures is found in that room – if you can find it.

What irks me most is that a lot of people won’t need this plan. Health issues are few and far between and most do not visit the Ashe Center more than once a quarter, if at all.

Besides, many students are already covered by their parent’s insurance plan or even their own private one. SHIP would put those students in a position where they would be “double covered.”

I fell into this category. But the SHIP lady was eager to have me go over all the plan offered anyways. When I finally told her my situation, she said I’d either have to quit my own insurance plan, be double covered or appeal for a waiver.

The waive out period for the coming fall quarter is limited to the period between Sept. 1 and Sept. 20. There is no paperwork; all the work is done online at www.studenthealth.ucla.edu in the online services SHIP waiver page.

After Sept. 20, there’s no turning back until the winter quarter starts. It makes no sense why students must take time out repeatedly every quarter to rid themselves of a plan that they don’t need.

Much like any other policy or plan we sign up for, the school goes out of its way to use our inattentiveness against us. But what we don’t know can hurt.

UCLA rids itself of social responsibilities by obscuring the details of plans in an unpublicized Web site that is not easily accessible from the main page nor other commonly searched Web sites.

The pit of paper information is not found in well-populated areas such as Ackerman or Kerckhoff, but in a small room on the fourth floor of Ashe.

Disguised under the acronym SHIP, students who do not have the initiative or time to research the policy will never fully understand unfair and limited plans forced on them.

There is, then, little wonder why it seems that bills are endless and ourmoney earned is never quite enough. It is no surprise why the tuition seems to soar ever so much higher while our classrooms become more crowded.

And now many will find themselves paying more just to be “double covered” – or covered inadequately by a basic program.

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