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Comment by Thlom | Hacker News Reader

No wonder health care is expensive in the US when a neurosurgeon can blow $75k on a whim.

There better be a big payday if I’m spending all my 20s in school and then 100 weeks in residency a few years and then finally in my 30s I start making money, but I still have to deal with the general public, and they’re sick.

You should talk to more teachers.

Unless you don't have other options or really, really love teaching, I wouldn't recommend becoming a teacher unless the pay was greatly increased. Too much liability and annoyance of dealing with other parents.

Or if you want a M-F, 7a-3p job with great vacation.

Though you might need to grade homework/projects on your time off, as well as develop lesson plans.

(I went to a Super Bowl party, and there were teachers grading worksheets in the corner.)

Residents get paid, doctors don't spend their 20's as un-paid employees of the medical system.

Lots of people work hard and work long hours all their life; where's their big payday?

They may not have a choice, people who are intelligent enough and/or supported enough to become doctors presumably have other high paying options. High pay is determined by supply and demand, not how hard you work.

You should see what kind of money the insurance execs blow on toys.

I don’t see insurance company executives compensated any more than other large company executives. If anything, insurance companies are more conservative.

"insurance companies are more conservative."

What about AIG?

Health care insurance CEOs are paid well, and better than others in that system. [0]

Insurance companies in general are generous with their CEOs. Total compensation for CEO of Allstate was $42 million in 2010 (last time I checked them).

[0] https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150425/MAGAZINE/3...

AIG-FP paid Joseph Cassano ("Patient Zero of the global economic meltdown.") $315 million and he wasn't even CEO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cassano

That article isn't about health insurance companies.

Right, it's about the health care industry, which includes insurance companies and other segments of the industry. It shows that health insurance CEOs are paid better than CEOs from other segments of the industry. It is in response to the assertion that insurance execs are compensated more conservatively than execs from other large companies, specifically compared to segments of the same industry.

This is peculiar US thing where anything said against doctor is taken as personal slight. All healthcare issues have been caused by insurance, government, bureaucracy or anyone except doctors.

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