Friday Project
Interview

Name: Ruth Kwon
(Met in Gender & Sexuality In Digital Cultures class)
Age: 21
Experience: Born in NYC, Moved to Rancho Palos Verdes at the age of 4. Lived in Seoul for few years. Majors in Sociology at U.C.L.A
Personality: Positive and bright.

Followings are the part we interviewed Ruth Kwon in the campus and on the internet.
Ruby: Hi, Ruth. These are Ruby, Jenny, Alex and Lin. We have an assignment to interview briefly an American on what you considers to be an important social issue. By social issues I mean issues like the high divorce rate, gay rights, unemployment, immigration, environmental pollution, access to medical care, gun control, military spending, capital punishment, etc. You are free to choose one of these topics or any other that interests you. Ruth: I’m mostly interested in talking about either the access to medical care or the gun control since I consider those as one of the most urgent social issues at the current moment.

Ruby: Why is it so important to you?

Ruth: Because within this country, not everyone can have an equal access to the medical care since there are many illegal immigrants in the U.S. and even if a person does have an access to the medical care, the medical insititutions charge an expensive fee. And the gun control, I feel like it’s really important right now because there are many gun shooting incidences happening all over the country.

Ruby: Are you personally affected by this issue?

Ruth: I would say no right now, but at some point, I will have to afford medical insurance fee once I get my career and it can be a lot of burden because it cost around 500 dollars depends on what kind of insurance you get.

Ruby: Can you elaborate on the whole American medical system since we are not familiar with it?

Ruth: Sure. So in America, you have to have the medical insurance that helps you to financially support all the expensive medical fees. However, even if you have the insurance, any kinds of medical service that you get are still expensive. Even just seeing a doctor cost around 40 to 60 dollars, which is pretty expensive. However, the more problem is, if you do not have the medical insurance, it will be around 200 dollars to see the doctor... So it is definitely better to have insurance when the medical institutions still charge an expensive fee. In fact, access to the medical care make poor people and illegal immigrants to be isolated in this society, which is a serious problem.

Ruby: What would you like to see done?

Ruth: It’s hard to say... but I really hope that everyone will be able to have their rights to secure their health conditions. In order to do so, I think it’s the government who is responsible of showing the change.

Jenny: Hi, Ruth:) Nice to meet you and thanks so much for your time!
I agree with your idea about medical problems, because I have heard that kind of issues from my aunt who lives in Chicago and American. But actually I didn’t think carefully about the solutions for this because that is not closely related to my life- You said, the government should show responsibility for better medical care for everyone. Then, you mean the government should make laws for this? Then there might be a lot of tax burdens to people?

Ruth: I personally don’t think there can be a perfect solution and I am just roughly saying it because there is really nothing I can do about it. I do not think law can really change anything because I consider it as another form of creating inequality between people. But I think the government can at least give more power to the people in this country than giving the authority to the medical institutions.

Lin: Hi, Ruth~ Nice to meet you.
I believe you have told a lot about the medical care. I can’t agree more for your idea. For your idea that you don’t think law can really change anthing, though we still expect the