Yeah, my Uncle the anesthesiologist works part-time and makes probably almost a much as out TotalFark PatriotCapitalists (tm) at 20 hours a week. Though he's recently started listening to too much Glenn Beck, and has decided to go off the grid... bought some solar panels and retrofitting his $1.1 million dollar house to live through the Randian apocalypse, I guess. And I have learned to avoid ever mentioning health care reform to him.

Thought about being a CRNA, but that's 3-4 years of full time school, and I'm missin' enough of my baby growing up right now.

When I was a kid, I was hit by a car and was in the hospital for 2 months. I was in a lot of pain, but when I got out of the hospital I decided I wanted to be an anesthesiologist when I grew up cause she was the only person at the hospital who made me feel any better :-)

/a lost dream

Sister in law is going to school next semester for anesthesiology, I don't really see the big deal except that you could possibly kill people. Look for allergies, take height/weight - apply some formula, and deliver the needle. Not that complex

Contrabulous Flabtraption: #8: Assistant Crack Whore

came for this. Niiiiiice!

Yeah, pretty sure I want the guy taking away all feeling and having to know how to reverse it making more than minimum wage.

A friend of mine is a surgeon... they're silently making more than the anesthesiologists ever will.


Go figure.

dletter: CPT Ethanolic: Goldman Sachs CEO's make how much? I'm betting more than the #1 listed job.

Or Hollywood movie starlet? I'm guessing that is a better racket as well.

2% get 10M/yr

98% have sex with fat middle aged men for the false promise of roles

Reminds me, I should have been a director

I knew an anesthesiologist, big $$, they had two houses and a nanny on the one income. The nanny doesn't make any sense as the wife didn't work. She was hot though... so maybe that is why it made sense.

/I would just use the drugs in my free time

They probably had to truncate the list to make it more interesting. A list of the top paying medical jobs probably has a smaller reader base than a general list.

/not on the list.
//sigh

AnubisMan: Sister in law is going to school next semester for anesthesiology, I don't really see the big deal except that you could possibly kill people. Look for allergies, take height/weight - apply some formula, and deliver the needle. Not that complex

It's because doctors have direct control of their monopoly (through licensing and petitioning the government to not fully fund medical schools) and let to few people in so they can keep their salaries up. I imagine this list explains about half of why we spend twice as much on healthcare as everyone else.

Wonder what this job pays

AnubisMan: Sister in law is going to school next semester for anesthesiology, I don't really see the big deal except that you could possibly kill people. Look for allergies, take height/weight - apply some formula, and deliver the needle. Not that complex

Any monkey can put you under, the tricky part is waking you back up.

/My dad is a retired anesthesiologist. "Holy high liability insurance!"

Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

Payscale.com seems to contradict this link.

Glory be! Wasn't a slideshow.

idrow: Wonder what this job pays

Wow. That's like being a pin-spotter at an old-time bowling alley. Except times about a zillion.

corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.

corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

Yea, it's not like they are starting their careers 8 years later than everyone else, and 200k+ in debt or anything. Wait a minute.

So, um... no fruit pie assembly-line QA?
Damn you, stupid Hostess.

6. Actuary Death Panelist

GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.


As I cannot afford my "health" at this time I am unable to properly answer your question.

If I worked for goldman-sachs then the above would cease to be an issue.

corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

I think if my physician's entire job centered around putting me into a drug-induced, paralyzing coma and then try to wake me back up, I would want him to be happy with his job. Salary is a big part of that. Plus, the man/woman needs his money to pay the ridiculously high malpractice insurance premiums.
Anesthesiologists deserve every penny of what they get. Same with all physicians. They went to school/residency for decades to learn their trade. They deserve to get paid for it.

corn-bread: GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.


As I cannot afford my "health" at this time I am unable to properly answer your question.

If I worked for goldman-sachs then the above would cease to be an issue.

fine - coverage is an important issue as well...

however, that doesn't mean that all that expertise and hard work is inappropriately reimbursed - if that were the case, many things in life are unfair (your car, mechanic, lawyers, CEOs etc)... health coverage specifically is a separate issue, but doctors salaries account for less than 2% of the health care expenditure in the country - they're not the "bad guys"

TheYeti: most of his time is spent supervising CRNAs.


Translated: Sitting on ass in doctors' lounge drinking coffee watching CNBC.

DubyaHater: Anesthesiologists deserve every penny of what they get. Same with all physicians. They went to school/residency for decades to learn their trade. They deserve to get paid for it.

I think they deserve the money but wouldn't use that justification. After all, that means that someone who spent 7-10 years getting a PhD on a completely useless field like Greco-Roman Pottery or Plasma Physics deserves lots of money. It's the fact that they're so needed and useful that brings them the moolah.

osiris111: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

Yea, it's not like they are starting their careers 8 years later than everyone else, and 200k+ in debt or anything. Wait a minute.


It's not like they have 25 - 30 years to pay back those loans.
No one else gets sympathy for having high student loans, but doctors do. Crushing debt is crushing debt no matter who has it.

Who knew that German automobiles did not pay for themselves. Why won't someone think of the poor poor doctors?

Screw top-paying. On the other "best" jobs list, this should be number 1:



Think about it in a conversation. "I'm a systems engineer." vs. "I'm an astronaut."

/and you can pee in your suit
//and still make $100k
///and free healthcare

GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.

Funny how French doctors manage to save lives just as well while making close to a third of what their American counterparts can demand. You sound like a med student. And if you are I should let you know you'll be looking at a big pay cut in the not to distant future.

HiFiGuy: AnubisMan: Sister in law is going to school next semester for anesthesiology, I don't really see the big deal except that you could possibly kill people. Look for allergies, take height/weight - apply some formula, and deliver the needle. Not that complex

Any monkey can put you under, the tricky part is waking you back up.

/My dad is a retired anesthesiologist. "Holy high liability insurance!"

I was talking to someone who had recently become an anesthesiologist and related how one had put me too far under when I was five and I stopped breathing for a while. She just waved me off. "Pffft. That happens all the time." I don't think nearly killing five year olds on a daily basis is a job I would be able to handle.

AnubisMan: Sister in law is going to school next semester for anesthesiology, I don't really see the big deal except that you could possibly kill people. Look for allergies, take height/weight - apply some formula, and deliver the needle. Not that complex

Well then, I suppose you should just go out and be one, then.

do anesthesiologists provide a more valuable role than other doctors? no.

why do they get paid more? because they do a lot of procedures, like dermatologists, and you get paid more money for a procedure than you do for a long conversation with a patient. anesthesiologists put in IVs, intubate, sedate, monitor, etc. family practice doctors just talk.

that's one of the reasons health care is so messed up today.

GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.


As I cannot afford my "health" at this time I am unable to properly answer your question.

If I worked for goldman-sachs then the above would cease to be an issue.

fine - coverage is an important issue as well...

however, that doesn't mean that all that expertise and hard work is inappropriately reimbursed - if that were the case, many things in life are unfair (your car, mechanic, lawyers, CEOs etc)... health coverage specifically is a separate issue, but doctors salaries account for less than 2% of the health care expenditure in the country - they're not the "bad guys"


You are comparing high priced optional non-necessities and pricing to health care pricing. This is a fallacy.

Your car: not a necessity. Difficult to live without, sure. But not required.
Mechanic: Much could be done yourself. Also ties in with above.
Lawyers: Criminal representation is provided. Civil representation is not life or death.
CEOs: Ditto.

Health: Essential to life.


If health and health care is as vital as you say, then why do you conversely defend factors make it harder to obtain?

shanghaid: do anesthesiologists provide a more valuable role than other doctors? no.

why do they get paid more? because they do a lot of procedures, like dermatologists, and you get paid more money for a procedure than you do for a long conversation with a patient. anesthesiologists put in IVs, intubate, sedate, monitor, etc. family practice doctors just talk.

that's one of the reasons health care is so messed up today.

Very much this. Our reimbursement system is completely FUBARed. PCPs should be in that top 5 list.

I don't recall the numbers exactly, but I do recall that a among the medical professions, anesthesiologists were quite well represented in the "I spent a lot of time at work tripping balls" category of malpractice-insurance-mandated rehab. Pretty terrifying.

corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

Physician salaries make up a small percent of healthcare costs and have been stagnant or decreasing for a while now. Drug and device costs are exponentially more expensive to the system.

relcec: GirlGoneWild: corn-bread: Four of the top jobs are medical related. Nope, no economic waste and overcharging in the healthcare system at at all no siree.

/As if it weren't clear enough why embedded interests fight all reforms.

what's more important than your life or health?

you sound you work for goldman-sachs or some other wall street firm, where all the life-important decisions are made.

Funny how French doctors manage to save lives just as well while making close to a third of what their American counterparts can demand. You sound like a med student. And if you are I should let you know you'll be looking at a big pay cut in the not to distant future.

funny how chinese workers seem to make products at a fraction of the cost, or how the equivalent of blue-collar union workers around the world make a fraction and do the same job. funny how construction and labor and executive pay is lower around the world...

where do you draw the line?

/not a med-student
//for universal health care
///again physicians salaries are 2% of the health cost, and malpractice suits are about 2% as well - go figure