3 ms·

I never understood why we (in the US) treat eyes differently for insurance purposes. I can’t think of any medical device for which it makes more sense to have a

I never understood why we (in the US) treat eyes differently for insurance purposes. I can’t think of any medical device for which it makes more sense to have a single payer system. The positive social externalities from having a populace who is able to see is enormous and would more than pay for itself. Things like car accidents, workplace related injuries, better school outcomes, etc. But for some reason we’ve gone the complete opposite direction. Not only is eyesight not single payer it’s somehow been excluded from most health insurance and the vision plans that do exist aren’t particularly helpful.

NoSorryCannot 5y ago
And optometrists are permitted to cultivate a misleading* impression that you must or should buy your eyeglasses from them, and their cheapest model is $200 and every pair in the shop is probably sold by Luxottica. Getting a new pair of glasses was an unreasonably rare and precious thing when I was growing up, because of the cost. *in general, optometrists must produce a copy of the prescription that was paid for when asked, and then you can take it wherever. Make sure they write down your pupillary distance on it; they often "forget" to do this.