News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry. Parent comment

Re:Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefer... by rsynnott on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @01:15PM (#18980856)
Yeah, it's pretty weird. Test and basic glasses are free or near-free for most people in Ireland (if you've got a job it's covered under PRSI, if you don't it'll be covered by the medical card). If you're covered by neither (ie fully private), ~60 euro. I'm not sure what's stopping US vendors from just importing glasses from Europe...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefer... by Scoundreller on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:06AM (#18986148)
How much do the insurers get charged?

Because people can go long periods of time between exams/pairs as adults, it's possible they keep their cash prices low to convince the uninsured to step in the door.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefer... by rsynnott on Thursday January 24, 2019 @06:00AM (#18987607)
Private optical insurance _exists_, but basically only as a corporate perk that pays for more expensive frames, etc. Most people wouldn't have it, and it didn't exist at all until a few years ago. Private health insurance is more common, but doesn't pay for glasses or routine eye tests.

I believe PRSI (the government social insurance scheme) pays about 30 euro for a basic eye test. At the big local chain, people without either PRSI or medical card (this would mostly be non-resident foreigners, plus maybe some early retirees etc), pay 30 euro, plus about 60 euro for basic frames with basic lenses.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefer... by reaperducer on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @01:52PM (#18981332)
I'm not sure what's stopping US vendors from just importing glasses from Europe...

They do. Mine are from Germany, but still cost $700, large part because of my prescription.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefer... by pkaye on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @02:37PM (#18981880)
They do import them... and then mark them up a huge amount. Unless you go to a few discount places like Costco or online vendors.
[ Parent | on HN ]