Woo Hoo. There is a health plan worth saving.
That's probably a bunch of crap.
Some of it, but my wife's job includes full family insurance coverage under a group insurance plan and finding anything even marginally comparable to the massive coverage we enjoy would cost us well over twenty thousand dollars per year to upkeep on our own.
Yes!! Her insurance is truly about one sixth of her total wage!
As far as glasses referring to the point made here, My "old man" eye examine is extensive (to protect the doctor from malpractice lawsuits) and it takes many tests and most of an afternoon, about thirteen hundred dollars worth of tests, but it is "free" (paid for by our expansive insurance coverage) for us and my glasses are covered up to one hundred dollars, normal lenses covered, but no specialties are included.
My daughter likes the cute teen styles and needs a simple astigmatism correction, so hers are "free" (within the confines of our insurance plan). My son on the other hand is a fucking "Marmaduke" - clumsy ass bigfooted stumbling dog. Love him to death, but he is now bigger (six feet two tall, two hundred forty five pounds) than I am at eighteen and as clumsy as any typical four year old. He needs those bendy glasses that supposedly can not be broken. Being super-sensitive to light we also pay for his lenses to be shading or darkening in sunlight, kind of a big cost. We pay out an additional two hundred dollars for his spectacles.
ME, I can not see through glass very well regardless, so I have to have the finest space age super clear Lexan, treated with rare earth elements to ensure they are glare free and super light. I also need to have super light frames made of very expensive titanium alloy and since I have a very large head they have to be the super sized for giants to be usable for me (yep, you could say I look like a fucking bug wearing my glasses). Also, I need to wear trifocals to see up close well, but I can not stand to have lines in my field of view, so I have to buy the "progressive trifocal" type of lenses that have no visible lines. All told my glasses cost one thousand two hundred dollars to buy. Fortunately our insurance covers up to seven hundred dollars on mine because of my astigmatism and age.
Mine cost, out of pocket, just over five hundred dollars because of our extensive insurance coverage.
This may be an extreme case, but I would not want to try to navigate this industry without some kind of insurance coverage.