Oakland resident Kenya Wheeler was a UC Berkeley graduate student when he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012.

Every semester University of California students like Wheeler can buy into the school system’s Student Health Insurance Plan, or SHIP. But coverage at most campuses disappears if a student’s costs exceed $400,000.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, caps on insurance plans are banned. However, a loophole in the act allows “self-funded” student insurance plans like the one offered within the UC system to keep such caps.

As the costs of Wheeler’s cancer treatments mounted, his expenses approached UC’s insurance ceiling and left him facing the reality of losing coverage.

Click on the video above to hear his story.