Seen with perfect vision.
As seen by a child with lazy eye.
I spent over $600 in the blink of any eye–at my eye doctor’s office yesterday for new lenses for my glasses, an office visit and new contacts for me.
We’re a family of contact lens-wearers, so annual vision check-ups are a must. The docs won’t renew a prescription for lenses unless you come each year. Which is a good thing. When I was a kid, I went from seeing normally to being practically blind in fourth grade. My mom had to pay out-of-pocket for the ophthalmology appointments and for my hard contact lenses which were required in order to keep my corneas fixed so I didn’t lose more vision. Those lenses cost a fortune–in 1977 they were over $400! Glasses added another $300. It was a hardship for my mom, but thanks to her, I can still see and my vision has hardly changed since then.
My daughter’s vision also changed dramatically, though she was three when it began. Her eyes started to turn in, i.e. “lazy eye.” We did the patching and got glasses but to no avail as she ended up with surgery just before her fourth birthday. Her first pair of glasses, TRI-FOCALS for a 4-year old were over $400! That was a fortune for young parents with no vision insurance, but we bought them and today, at almost 20, her vision was saved. Had we not had that surgery or purchased the corrective glasses, she would have lost her vision in her left eye. The organization, Prevent Blindness America, reports that more than one in 50 children have amblyopia (“lazy eye”).
Unfortunately for many Americans, they can’t afford vision care. Yet “four in 10 U.S. adults and children nationwide have no eyecare/ vision coverage,” according to VSP Vision Care. (See http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7068253/In-the-blink-of-an.html)
For those interested in learning how vision coverage might be affected by the health care proposals, see: http://www.visionmonday.com/Default.aspx?tabid=211&content_id=15984&category_id=103
For more detailed information about the effects of lack of access to vision care, please see below or visit: http://www.nei.nih.gov/nehep/research/FinalReport9_15_05.pdf
The receipt of eye care is an important concern because the number of vision disorders and cases of blindness is increasing. In 2000, there were a reported 937,000 Americans aged 40 and older who were blind. The number of persons with low vision was estimated to be an additional 2.4 million, bringing the total number of Americans aged 40 and older with visual impairments to 3.3 million, or one in 28 persons (Congdon et al., 2004). The leading causes of vision impairment and blindness in the United States include diabetic retinopathy, age‐related macular degeneration (AMD), cataract, and glaucoma. . . .
In reviewing the literature for barriers to health care, several pieces of research showed that whether a person has health insurance or not is a major factor in the receipt of health care. . . . Of those who were uninsured and needed care, 35 percent never received any (Kaiser, 2003). . . .
