. >> reporter: christina parreira is a ph.d.andidate in sociology at the university of nevada las vegas doing her dissertation on prostitution. her research firsthand by working in a brothel and interviewing her co-workers. many of them don't have the top-quality health insurance she has. >> i'm sure there's going to be people who would say if you have trouble getting health insurance because you're a prostitute get another job. >> right. >> what would you say? >> what we do is real work. sex work is work. >> right. >> we pay taxes. we have families. we work hard. there's no difference between this and any other service labor job. >> does it not worry you that this job might put you at risk? >> every profession has its own associated risk. prior to this i was a jockey. and my risks were falling off of the horse, getting a concussion, or potentially getting killed. >> that's certainly a high-risk profession and yet no one would begrudge a jockey health care coverage. in fact, you'd think they were foolish not to have it, right? >