My health insurance to take a massive hike next year (1 Viewer)

[The Commish]

Good thing the Republicans have offered lots of viable alternatives.

NO plan is still better than a BAD plan.

NO plan means that health care costs will eventually break us. And having NO plan is even more ridiculous in light of other countries giving us numerous blueprints to deal with the problem. Voting for people who have NO plan is pretty irresponsible.

So is voting for people who have put us on a path that speeds up the health care cost train. For once, I wish these yahoos would talk about the costs and enact legislation that addresses costs specifically.

 

[jonessed]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

 

[boots11234]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. Very few dr's who aren't specializing make 300k. Some salesmen who sell heart devices make that amount. I'd say it's much closer to 150-175 range however. This is still a lot I agree but the job truly sucks if you want a life. Typical travel of 80% and very very long hours. Sure they have huge expense budgets but that means you need to spend it entertaining. You can only go to so many sporting events, golfing and nice restaurants before you'd kill to just stay home with your family and eat Mac and cheese. I know this because I work in the field. To be fair I work selling to manufactures not physicians. Believe it or not there is huge pressure to always reduce costs in designing and producing devices. On top of that because of advances in devices there's way less open heart surgery, they go up the leg now. This is cheaper and way better for the patient then open heart surgery of the past.

 

[James Daulton]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. Very few dr's who aren't specializing make 300k. Some salesmen who sell heart devices make that amount. I'd say it's much closer to 150-175 range however. This is still a lot I agree but the job truly sucks if you want a life. Typical travel of 80% and very very long hours. Sure they have huge expense budgets but that means you need to spend it entertaining. You can only go to so many sporting events, golfing and nice restaurants before you'd kill to just stay home with your family and eat Mac and cheese.I know this because I work in the field. To be fair I work selling to manufactures not physicians. Believe it or not there is huge pressure to always reduce costs in designing and producing devices. On top of that because of advances in devices there's way less open heart surgery, they go up the leg now. This is cheaper and way better for the patient then open heart surgery of the past.

I no way implied that every single device/Rx salesman made that much money. Many do however, and if their companies can afford to pay these folks that kind of scratch, imagine how much money the company is bringing in. And let's compare the intelligence/training required to become on MD vs a salesman. One requires basically a decade of intensive training and an IQ in the upper couple %'s of the world. The other, well, not so much. You have to have a good personality I guess.

 

[James Daulton]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. Very few dr's who aren't specializing make 300k. Some salesmen who sell heart devices make that amount. I'd say it's much closer to 150-175 range however. This is still a lot I agree but the job truly sucks if you want a life. Typical travel of 80% and very very long hours. Sure they have huge expense budgets but that means you need to spend it entertaining. You can only go to so many sporting events, golfing and nice restaurants before you'd kill to just stay home with your family and eat Mac and cheese.I know this because I work in the field. To be fair I work selling to manufactures not physicians. Believe it or not there is huge pressure to always reduce costs in designing and producing devices. On top of that because of advances in devices there's way less open heart surgery, they go up the leg now. This is cheaper and way better for the patient then open heart surgery of the past.

Oh the horror...

 

[James Daulton]

Time to join the revolt, girls. Some version of single payer is the answer. You just gotta want it enough, like gay marriage and legal weed.

What? And have to wait 6 months for a chest Xray and watch the pace of medical innovation dwindle to zero? We'll probably even go backwards and start using leeches and bloodletting again!

C'mon, you know better than to fall for that old wives' tale. Fear mongering won't get us there. Staying the course is the road to failure.

I was being facetious GB. I agree with you here. Well before the ACA came into life, healthcare cost were spiraling out of control.

It's a combination of many factors that we struggle with as a society, corporate profits, a lazy, gluttonous population, and advanced medical care that can extend the life dramatically of said lazy, gluttonous population.

 

[LAUNCH]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/11/19/unitedhealth-group-earnings-downgrade-obamacare-affordable-care-act/76040322/

The nation's largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the Obamacare exchanges after 2016 – forcing more than a half million people to find other coverage – after low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars.

UnitedHealth warned investors that it would reap $425 million less in revenue during the fourth quarter than it had previously expected, translating into 26 cents in earnings per share in losses attributed to a worse outlook for the quarter and all of 2016.

When healthy people don't pay, there isn't a way for it to work.

 

[jonessed]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. Very few dr's who aren't specializing make 300k. Some salesmen who sell heart devices make that amount. I'd say it's much closer to 150-175 range however. This is still a lot I agree but the job truly sucks if you want a life. Typical travel of 80% and very very long hours. Sure they have huge expense budgets but that means you need to spend it entertaining. You can only go to so many sporting events, golfing and nice restaurants before you'd kill to just stay home with your family and eat Mac and cheese.I know this because I work in the field. To be fair I work selling to manufactures not physicians. Believe it or not there is huge pressure to always reduce costs in designing and producing devices. On top of that because of advances in devices there's way less open heart surgery, they go up the leg now. This is cheaper and way better for the patient then open heart surgery of the past.

I no way implied that every single device/Rx salesman made that much money. Many do however, and if their companies can afford to pay these folks that kind of scratch, imagine how much money the company is bringing in. And let's compare the intelligence/training required to become on MD vs a salesman. One requires basically a decade of intensive training and an IQ in the upper couple %'s of the world. The other, well, not so much. You have to have a good personality I guess.

Those jobs are incentive based. Only the top sales people would be able to pull compensation like that and it would be because they sell a lot of product.

I'm sure any one of a number of companies would love to have more sales people in that range, but there just aren't a lot of people that can do it.

If you want to make big money in sales you are better off looking at the tech industry.

 

[roadkill1292]

Time to join the revolt, girls. Some version of single payer is the answer. You just gotta want it enough, like gay marriage and legal weed.

What? And have to wait 6 months for a chest Xray and watch the pace of medical innovation dwindle to zero? We'll probably even go backwards and start using leeches and bloodletting again!

C'mon, you know better than to fall for that old wives' tale. Fear mongering won't get us there. Staying the course is the road to failure.

I was being facetious GB. I agree with you here. Well before the ACA came into life, healthcare cost were spiraling out of control.

It's a combination of many factors that we struggle with as a society, corporate profits, a lazy, gluttonous population, and advanced medical care that can extend the life dramatically of said lazy, gluttonous population.

Good for you. I'm sorry that my sense of humor has apparently been shattered everywhere except in the soccer thread, where I think everything is funny.

 

[boots11234]

I had an experience different from Saber, but along the same lines.

I had a dizzy spell one night that my wife over-reacted to... so off to the ER I had to go. An EKG showed that I have Wolfe Parkinsons White (WPW), so immediately it was assumed that I had an episode of WPW and that's what I experienced. An episode of WPW is where the heart races so fast the person usually passes out. It happened to Meatloaf a few years ago while he was doing a concert.

So off to a heart hospital I'm sent, and they do surgery to try and ablate the WPW. Unfortunately I'm one of the 1% of people who have it where it exists so deep in a heart muscle that it cannot be ablated. So surgery failed to fix it, and I still have it. So now they want to treat it with meds. But they have to keep me in the hospital to monitor how I respond to the meds. Since I'm there for days on end with nothing to do, I begin to question if I even had an episode of WPW that night. The doc works with me on that line of thinking, and suggests we try a "tilt test". They have me lie on this board and strap me to it so they tilt me at a specific angle. Within minutes the exact same thing I experienced that night happened. My head starts swirling and a pass out. Doc said some people just do that when their bodies stay at that exact angle for an extended period of time. I now no longer watch TV tilted at that angle.

But here's where it gets sick. I now know what the problem was, and want to leave. But doc says, "oh no, no, no! You have WPW and it needs to be treated." Back then I was a lot more passive and respectful of doctors, so I said OK. Continue staying on the WPW meds in the hospital for days on end. Doc finally determines that the drug he tried on me wasn't producing the results he wanted to see, so he's moving me to a new drug. I say can I go on this new drug and go home. He says no.

At this point I say, given I've been bored out of my mind in here I've researched this WPW and I'm more likely to die in a car accident than I am from a WPW episode. and studies show that if someone has WPW but never had an episode of it, the older they get the less likely they will ever have one. He said all that is true, but the risk of WPW episodes is treatable, where as the risk of car accidents are not.

It was at that point I realized I was in that hospital room for weeks because I had something treatable and was covered by great insurance. And If I did not do something then, I would be in there for even more weeks, perhaps months. I said I'm done, and they discharged me. I've not taken a drug for WPW since, and that was over 8 years ago. Never had one WPW episode in my entire 44 years of living.

For every story like this there's untold more where doctors diagnoses some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

I personally think it's the opposite. For every 100 stories like this, there's 1 untold story where doctors diagnose some rare, dangerous condition and helped the patient fully recover.

You've watched too much House and it's effect on the cost of healthcare is tremendous.

I work in healthcare. You can think what you want. When your kid/wife is ill, you'll pray for the doctors taking care of them and won't even think that they're somehow trying to milk money out of you.

The ignorance ITT is astounding. Doctors make like $300k per year saving lives and helping keep people healthy. Freaking salesmen and wall street guys make many many multiples of that and you're worried about getting ripped of by doctors? The medical device and Rx salesmen often make a lot more than the physicians they're selling to. Who do you think is really getting rich from healthcare?

The average salary of a medical device or Rx salesman is much less than $300K.

Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. Very few dr's who aren't specializing make 300k. Some salesmen who sell heart devices make that amount. I'd say it's much closer to 150-175 range however. This is still a lot I agree but the job truly sucks if you want a life. Typical travel of 80% and very very long hours. Sure they have huge expense budgets but that means you need to spend it entertaining. You can only go to so many sporting events, golfing and nice restaurants before you'd kill to just stay home with your family and eat Mac and cheese.I know this because I work in the field. To be fair I work selling to manufactures not physicians. Believe it or not there is huge pressure to always reduce costs in designing and producing devices. On top of that because of advances in devices there's way less open heart surgery, they go up the leg now. This is cheaper and way better for the patient then open heart surgery of the past.

I no way implied that every single device/Rx salesman made that much money. Many do however, and if their companies can afford to pay these folks that kind of scratch, imagine how much money the company is bringing in. And let's compare the intelligence/training required to become on MD vs a salesman. One requires basically a decade of intensive training and an IQ in the upper couple %'s of the world. The other, well, not so much. You have to have a good personality I guess.

Not trying to hammer on you but your wrong again. Obviously personality is quite important but the salesman has to have an extensive knowledge of procedures and anatomy as well as communicate on the same level as a Dr. Think does a pip fitter has the same vocabulary as a Dr? Would he be affective?

As for big companies, their profits are in line with other big companies. The ones who were really hurt are small start ups with the device tax. Going to see a slow down in innovation because of that.

 

[matttyl]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/11/19/unitedhealth-group-earnings-downgrade-obamacare-affordable-care-act/76040322/

The nation's largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the Obamacare exchanges after 2016 – forcing more than a half million people to find other coverage – after low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars.

UnitedHealth warned investors that it would reap $425 million less in revenue during the fourth quarter than it had previously expected, translating into 26 cents in earnings per share in losses attributed to a worse outlook for the quarter and all of 2016.

When healthy people don't pay, there isn't a way for it to work.

The estimate I saw is that they are expecting to lose around $700 in 2015 and 2016 (since those rates are already locked). Yes, they are big enough to take a hit that large - but they aren't stupid enough to keep doing it year after year.

 

[Christo]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/11/19/unitedhealth-group-earnings-downgrade-obamacare-affordable-care-act/76040322/

The nation's largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the Obamacare exchanges after 2016 – forcing more than a half million people to find other coverage – after low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars.

UnitedHealth warned investors that it would reap $425 million less in revenue during the fourth quarter than it had previously expected, translating into 26 cents in earnings per share in losses attributed to a worse outlook for the quarter and all of 2016.

When healthy people don't pay, there isn't a way for it to work.

The estimate I saw is that they are expecting to lose around $700 in 2015 and 2016 (since those rates are already locked). Yes, they are big enough to take a hit that large - but they aren't stupid enough to keep doing it year after year.

A whole $700?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!