My brother's wife is a CRNA, and is technically paid hourly. The job ends up being something like 32 hours per week with annual pay of about $225k.

She recently had an elective surgery on her neck(something that was probably going to be needed within about 10 years and mostly quality of life focused but there wasn't some huge rush to do it), and the typical recovery time after is about 6-8 weeks.

The Union agreement ended up approving her for an entire 12 months off from work with full $225k pay during that time. She's only going to take about 8 weeks because she likes working, but she could easily take a 10 month trip around the world for the next 10 months while still collecting her nearly $19,000 per month pay.

If you were ever wondering why healthcare is so expensive, this a big reason. Obviously Insurance is a mess and also adds significantly to the cost, but when times are good, the Unions end up taking an entire pound of flesh in negotiations, which just ends up screwing everyone on costs even once times become leaner.

That's absurd.

I ve worked in healthcare before and had the protection of a union. It’s really up and down. One dude I know got fired for some bs. Union protected him and he won a 500k lawsuit or some chit. Unions won’t do chit for you in most cases unless you kiss their ass and contantly stay on top of them. Union leaders also eventually get corrupt and submit to ceos and weaken the groups they are supposed to protect overtime. ( they drop pensions, submit to corporate PTO standards, don’t fight as hard for increases in pay, etc)

Yeah, Unions themselves are also filled with politics and all kinds of slug behavior. Bosses being dickheads to everyone because that's the only way they can motivate workers whose default way of operating is saying things like, "That's not my job."

Public Sector unions are an absolute drain on society. They are parasiting off of parasites, and fuking things up for everyone.

That's a very technical job, with real consequences if one fuks up. This is preferable than some ghetto or white trash getting $60k a year plus an extra $5k per child they have, just because they were irresponsible. And that's not why healthcare it's expensive, it's the pharmaceutical corporations taking insulin, changing the packaging, and charging $700 for an injectable pen.

I'm not saying she's overpaid. She's intelligent and I'm sure the work is quite valuable. But the Unions fight for these absurd things that even the members don't want or need in order to justify their existence, and because the Healthcare CEOs are only around for 2-3 years before hopping to their next job or retiring, they just give in rather than fighting for what's actually good longterm.

Pharma costs being high would fall under the Insurance scam. Drugs aren't expensive in other countries, but because Insurance will pay for them in the US, they raise costs and give Insurers a "discount" which allows both parties to win and Insurance keeps up their racket.

9 out of 10 times the unions don’t do chit. This is just a lucky situation.

Another reason why health care is so expensive in America is few people shop around for best pricing for health services. Since most people have insurance or government health care coverage, a 3rd person paying, there is little incentive to check out pricing.

I belong to a Christian Health Sharing plan. Members are asked to shop around, and negotiate best pricing when possible for health care. It is amazing at how different pricing can be between hospitals. As an example, I had a hernia operation done a few years ago. One hospital would perform the operation for over $20,000. Another surgeon, who only does hernia operations, charges a little over $4000.

An advantage of the Christian Health sharing plan is that lower health costs are passed onto members. My health care coverage costs about half the price of what other more typical insurance companies charges.