Correct; the only reason Bay Area nurses make 100k is because that's what they need to subsist in the Bay Area. NYC nurses might also push six figs, but I'm not sure.
I am a nurse in the Midwest, working as a utilization manager for an insurance company; that is to say, when your doctor orders an exotic test, treatment, surgery, or medication, I am one of the people responsible for determining whether insurance will pay for it. If a doc does a good job with his paperwork, and the request uncontroversially meets criteria from the insurance policy I am reviewing against, I can authorize the procedure at my level. Otherwise, I send the case to a doctor who makes the final determination whether to approve or deny.
I make about 59.5k, although I get an autobump to ~63k next year because they automatically increase your skill level from Reviewer Associate to Reviewer I after one year. The usual benefits, health/dental/vision, 401k, disability, a small life insurance policy that is just enough to bury you but is free. We do get $30/month to go to whatever gym we want to. If you want to adopt, the company will also kick up to 5k your way to help pay for all the paperwork, which is especially nice for gay couples.
Quarterly bonuses between 0.625% and 1.25% of our base salary depending on whether we meet our individual/team goals. Team Leads get double that.
Team Leads start at around 70, first-level Managers around 80.
If you're a travel nurse, they normally pay for housing, yes. If you're a permanent employee, that's pretty rare and probably a Kaiser thing; they're like the Rolls-Royce of hospitals as far as nursing goes.
Be glad you didn't; it sucks. I am happy now that I got my ass out of the clinical world, but I spent over two years cleaning up literal shit on a daily basis, dealing with a bunch of drug-seekers who wanted their morphine and Dilaudid gibsmedats, and demented old people. I was very, very close to a mental breakdown.