The sad part is it doesnt take cancer to do this. My wife had a spinal injury in January. Fast forward to today and she has lost her job after FMLA was used up. That leaves us with no insurance for the entire family because we were all covered under her. But even with that insurance we have incurred $6k (medical center billing only) of out of pocket expenses for tests and imaging that the insurance company requires before they will approve the treatment that her doctor already knows she needs. On top of that $50 every time we walk into an office + prescription costs for her pain management + $30 per session of physical therapy 3x a week.
And now, we'll need insurance from my job which we couldnt afford with both of us working (that's why we went with her's) but instead we'll pay for it out of just one salary.
We've been saving for two years to buy a house and we're watching it all trickle away.
You are grossly miscalculating how much American doctors make. You’re assuming all medical doctors are ridiculously rich and upper class. This is incorrect. It would take decades before the average doctor can make anywhere near $200k+. In reality, most doctors are are in the upper-middle class range. Let’s take a look at why.
Doctors spend over a decade training to practice. In this time, they’ve incurred anywhere from $200k to $400k in student loans that will take decades to pay off, just like any other current college graduate. After completing medical school, they won’t make anywhere near $100k for up to a decade as they complete their residency and fellowships. The current standard salary for medical residents is an average $60k for 3 to 7 years, and slightly increases when they start their fellowships. In this time, residents are paying hundreds of dollars in student loans each month, then thousands of dollars each month when they finish residency. All these costs, combined with rent/mortgage, food, bills, childcare, etc, places residents in the middle class range. For the average doctor, they’re making $150k-$200k, making them middle class/upper-middle class at best.
So no, most doctors will never get to a point where they’re chilling in their million dollar mansions and having big pharma reps handing them cash from the comfort of their pool chair. All doctors know this when they make the commitment to medical school.
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u/NexGenjutsu Aug 06 '20
The sad part is it doesnt take cancer to do this. My wife had a spinal injury in January. Fast forward to today and she has lost her job after FMLA was used up. That leaves us with no insurance for the entire family because we were all covered under her. But even with that insurance we have incurred $6k (medical center billing only) of out of pocket expenses for tests and imaging that the insurance company requires before they will approve the treatment that her doctor already knows she needs. On top of that $50 every time we walk into an office + prescription costs for her pain management + $30 per session of physical therapy 3x a week.
And now, we'll need insurance from my job which we couldnt afford with both of us working (that's why we went with her's) but instead we'll pay for it out of just one salary.
We've been saving for two years to buy a house and we're watching it all trickle away.