5 ms·
> In the US, healthcare is effectively a collection of cartels Not just in the US. For example there's a huge glasses cartel in France with specialists that a
by ekianjo 4y ago
> In the US, healthcare is effectively a collection of cartels
Not just in the US. For example there's a huge glasses cartel in France with specialists that are protected by the government and make pairs of glasses cost 500~1000 USD with very little reimbursement, while in Japan private companies (that actually compete against each other's) let you have glasses for 60~70 USD all included. You are literally better off flying to Japan from France to shop for eyewear.
- rhexs 4y agoMight be tricky if you don’t speak Japanese though. Do they have multilingual optometrists that cater to tourists? I suppose Tokyo is big enough you can probably find one of anything.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoFrench people are rich enough to be proficient English speakers, as are people in Tokyo. Seems like it'll probably work out. I spent about a week in Japan, split between Tokyo and Nagasaki, and had no problem, having not even tried to learn any Japanese, except that I couldn't get the right train stop because I couldn't even recognize the characters, much less read them.
- missedthecue 4y agoApparently Japan has fewer bilingual citizens than even the USA.
- Bilal_io 4y ago> than even the USA. The US has a lot of immigrants, so I wouldn't count it as a country with a low percentage of bilinguals.
- missedthecue 4y agoCitizens?
- Bilal_io 4y agoYes. As of 2020 nearly half of immigrants in the USA are citizens according to Pew Research[0] 0- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-finding...
- missedthecue 4y agoSo about 6% of Americans are immigrants
- todorus 4y agoThe ability to speak English is a function of wealth? Sorry, what?
- waste_monk 4y agoI'm not sure how much it would cost to hire a translator for an hour or two, but you'd probably still come out ahead.
- rhexs 4y agoIs the eye chart in kanji? That’d be tough to translate.
- waste_monk 4y agoI was thinking more that optometry appointments usually include medical testing (the "air puff" test for glaucoma etc.) and may turn up issues that you need to be informed of. A machine translator or a friend who speaks both languages conversationally may not be sufficient to translate complex medical terminology. I'm not sure what you'd do about the eye chart. I don't know about optometry but I would imagine you can't just print off a poster of an English-language eye chart and use that, I always figured they'd be calibrated for a certain size, resolution, and the distance from the vision test machine taken into account. As you suggest, given the number of western tourists to Japan I'm sure there'd be some subset of optometrists who are set up for English-language patients.
- haroldp 4y agoI paid $97 in the US for my last optometrist visit to get a prescription at Costco, and about $50 for (ehem) "transition" lens glasses from zenni.com.
- troebr 4y agoI don't know how much things have changed, but in 2008 I bought my first pair of glasses in France, and had to leave the store to get some cash because they had a 10 euro minimum. I lost my prescription sunglasses a few months ago and got a replacement for $700 _after_ insurance. The frame was $150, so not outrageous.
- peoplefromibiza 4y agoaccording to the stats it is true that in France glasses and lenses are expensive, but not that expensive as you claim. It's between 50 and 250 euros, depending on the brand. For a pair of Prada or Louis Vuitton sunglasses you can easily spend 350-500 euros, but luxury brands are expensive by definition. Anyway you pay for glasses and lenses once and then you're good for years.
- merry_flame 4y agoThings have improved significantly over the past few decades. Once you have a prescription, you can independently buy your glasses from a discount seller or on the Internet. Most opticians also offer very decent pairs that are fully covered by social security, or that cost €1. The pain point these days is getting that prescription renewed.
- pezezin 4y agoI recently bought a pair of prescription sunglasses and I had to pay almost 35 000 yen, about 250 USD or EUR at the current exchange rate, the same I paid for the previous ones in Spain 5 years ago. I would love to know where I can get them for a quarter the price!