[speaker002:] right now I'm at um University of Pennsylvania I'm a graduate student
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and the benefits that I get are very minimal
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but I do get my health insurance paid for but I don't have any kind of disability insurance or um
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but not any real significant benefits my health insurance is very minimal
[speaker001:] right  um I'm I'm a co-op student at GTRI
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] you're undergraduate student or graduate student
[speaker001:] um-hum undergrad
[speaker002:] undergrad yeah
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] oh yeah yeah
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] everybody responsible for their own health insurance
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] uh-huh well that's a good idea I had never thought about it that way
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah right right that's that would be a wonderful idea
[speaker002:] but on the other hand in in the current state of the current system I'll
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] whenever I get out of here I'll look for a job probably an academic job that would
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] you know benefits I don't know how important that'll be usually academic jobs you get TIAA for your retirement plan
[speaker001:] right uh-huh
[speaker002:] which is a it's a mutual fund that allows you to transfer your benefits with you with whatever job you go to
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and
[speaker001:] I didn't know that
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] I know my daddy worked for the federal government
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] wow um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] she has um she's a kidney patient on dialysis and he was saying that
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and her drug bill is now down to two hundred dollars a month
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] yipes um-hum right
[speaker002:] what kind of job are you thinking about getting when you get out
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and I I I'm going to be doing research for a professor next quarter and see how I like that see uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] if research for a school would be something I would consider
[speaker002:] hum what kind of company are you working with co-oping
[speaker001:] oh oh it's the Georgia Tech Research Institute it's affiliated with the university um
[speaker002:] I see
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so a lot of our uh expenses are you know covered by the federal government so
[speaker002:] right