right now i'm at um
 		University of Pennsylvania i'm a graduate student
 	
 	
 		oh
 	
 	
 		and the benefits that i get are very minimal
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		but i do get my health insurance paid for but i don't have any kind of disability insurance or um
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		let's see no disability insurance no vacation well i get in a way i get vacation pay because i get to set totally set my own schedule
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		but
 		not any real significant benefits my health insurance is very minimal
 	
 	
 		right
 		
 
 		um i'm i'm a co-op student at GTRI
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		uh i go to school at Georgia Tech and we don't have benefits to speak of we don't have health insurance or paid vacation and
 	
 	
 		you're undergraduate student or graduate student
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		undergrad
 	
 	
 		undergrad yeah
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		yeah here they for the grad students at least
 		in physiology department which my degree degree granting department is biological engineering but physiology and the biomedical departments at least pay the health insurance engineering doesn't even do that
 	
 	
 		oh
 		yeah yeah
 	
 	
 		but i don't know i think that it would be great if instead of having health insurance and all those things tied to a job the way they are now
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		so that some people can get them and some people can't and it's like having two classes of income some that is taxed and some that is not it'd be great if they had
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		everybody responsible for their own health insurance
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and either that or what
 		they could be responsible for their own health insurance but if they did take the company benefit then that would be taxed like other income
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		so then that would everybody would know what their real income was and that their benefit that they were getting from the company was costing them something and that they might want to look around to get something better somewhere else
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 		well that's a good idea i had never thought about it that way
 	
 	
 		so
 		i guess
 		i would like to see something like that and then
 		i guess the going beyond just the idea of benefits having
 		instead of um a national health insurance system having
 		a sort of like an FDIC for health insurers so if if you're health insurance company goes out of business you don't lose everything if you get sick
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		yeah
 		right
 		right that's
 		that would be a wonderful idea
 	
 	
 		but on the other hand in in the current state of the current system i'll
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		whenever i get out of here i'll look for
 		a job probably an academic job that would
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		you know benefits i don't know how important that'll be usually academic jobs you get TIAA for your retirement plan
 	
 	
 		right
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		which is a it's a mutual fund that allows you to transfer your benefits with you with whatever job you go to
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and
 	
 	
 		i didn't know that
 	
 	
 		a lot of an academic jobs give you that but on the other hand state retirement if you work for a state university can be very secure in taking  good care of you
 	
 	
 		really
 	
 	
 		i know my daddy worked for the federal government
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and he was in the soil conservation service and then after he retired from that he went taught school for a while and he had taught school early in his career so he got the
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		federal retiree benefits and the state retiree benefits and the most important for him has been the health insurance because my mama isn't particularly well
 	
 	
 		wow
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		she has um she's a kidney patient on dialysis and he was saying that
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		now that her kidneys have totally failed they've taken her off one of the drugs Lasix which is a diuretic it it changes how the kidneys absorb moisture
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and her drug bill is now down to two hundred dollars a month
 	
 	
 		wow
 	
 	
 		so and that's the lowest it's been in quite some time and so health insurance can be a real big important thing to get
 	
 	
 		
 
 		yipes
 		um-hum
 		right
 	
 	
 		what kind of job are you thinking about getting when you get out
 	
 	
 		oh i'm i'm just not entirely sure i have only been working here for one quarter this is my first quarter here and uh i'm not really all too sure what kind of jobs are available and uh
 		i haven't gotten them yet i'm going in a few
 		um
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and i i
 		i'm going to be doing research for a professor next quarter and see how i like that see uh
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		if research for a school would be something i would consider
 	
 	
 		hum
 		what kind of company are you working with co-oping
 	
 	
 		oh oh it's the Georgia Tech Research Institute it's affiliated with the university um
 	
 	
 		i see
 	
 	
 		and uh we do research uh the one i'm in the lab i'm in does research in microwaves and antennas
 		and uh we do a lot of research for the federal government
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		so a lot of our uh expenses are you know covered by the federal government so
 	
 	
 		right