Why do LASIK surgery costs keep going down?

Coleman Senn: Because government is not involved.Look at the price of computers, cell phones and digital cameras. Look at how they have dropped, and the products became more advanced. This is because of technology and the Free Market.Now look at the cost of education and general health care. They continue to rise. Why? I'll tell you why, government involvement rather than the Free Market....Show more

Elva Batie: www.lasikdisaster.com

Clare Hoard: maybe because lasik is an elective surgery? very few people need it to save their lives, therefore the suppliers can only charge as much as the market will allow.when your life is on the line, say, you need chemotherapy to fight cancer, the supplier (big pharma) KNOWS they have you over a barrel and will take every penny they can get... most people will pay it (or demand their insurance pay for it) because if they don't, THEY DIE.there is a subtle difference between what people are willing to pay and how much th! ey are ABLE to pay. one of the first lessons i learned in economics is that cost and price are totally unrelated. it only cost the pharmaceutical company $5 to manufacture the chemo drugs i had to take to beat cancer 15 years ago... but they charged me (my insurance, really) $12,000 per dose. why? because i had NO choice except to pay. where else could i have gone to get the treatment i needed? merck held the patent on the drug, no one else could produce it legally, and i wanted to survive.or die quickly, as representative alan grayson so eloquently pointed out.so, there is no lesson we can learn from the lasik people.and btw... don't tell me about the cost to develop new drugs. big pharma doesn't spend any of their own money on that. the taxpayer does, through government grants to the university and medical school laboratories that actually carry out the research....Show more

Toshia Metzker: It's going down because less people are getting elective surgeries d! one because of the economy. Mine was $4290.

Maritza Eba! nks: Doubtful. What's more likely to happen is constant technological advances that will keep the cost up. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. You want the best for your eyes, after all.

Dulcie Edis: What is learned from the business of Lasik is that if people can decide *when* they need health care, prices can go down.Lasik is an elective, arguably cosmetic, procedure. One cannot compare elective Lasik to general health care. You have Lasik when/if you decide to do it. Rarely is general health care so cooperative. A Lasik doctor is not dealing with an emergency who showed up with no notice while you wait for your appointment. There are no emergency Lasiks.Lasik is assuredly a competitive business, and competition has lead to some rather large problems. When Lasik is advertised and promoted to the point that the public thinks you look in a machine, drop a coin, and the doctor pushes a button, then the public does not understand the risk of microsurgery on your eyes.Wh! ile it is true that Lasik is medically safe and the vast majority of people who have had Lasik would do it again knowing what they know now, Lasik's reputation has been marred by a few individuals - especially early on - who saw Lasik as a business to make money and not as medicine to provide care.Competition is good if - big IF - the consumer is fully informed and the consequences of a bad choice are limited. Our nonprofit patient advocacy organization has spent over a decade trying to advise people on the true risks and benefits of Lasik and similar laser eye surgery. We evaluate actual patient outcomes and publish current Lasik results, we certify doctors whose patient outcomes meet our requirements, we publish the 50 Tough Questions For Your Lasik Doctor, and we have literally thousands of pages of information on our website.Best of luck on your Lasik tomorrow. I sincerely hope your choice of surgeon was not based on the lowest bidder....Show more

Manie Labat: It ! surprises me that so many Americans seem not to be aware about Obama’! s healthcare plans [a]. During the election, he campaigned for these changes stating that he felt it was unfair to have a system where insurance companies try to escape paying claims and was elected to bring in changes [b].First of all, too many people do not know that Obama wants to make insurance more available to all. His system is similar to that which works in Holland, Taiwan [c] and Switzerland. It works there and private healthcare companies provide most the insurance to the people there.FACT - the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet [d].FACT â€" insurance companies admit that they push up costs, buy politicians and do not pay out for many claims when they should [e].FACT - the US has higher death rates for kids aged under five than western European countries with universal health coverage [f].That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, the Nether! lands, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage. And no western European nation with universal healthcare has moved away from it. And the sad thing is, that the insurance companies have spent loads of money to fight these reforms [g] and loads of politicians are taking the thirty pieces of silver from them to fight the reforms, rather than fight for the health of the American people.Remember, I back my facts up with evidence. Those who say they are wrong tend not to. If they are wrong, e-mail me with proof and let me know....Show more

Barrett Felicia: Let me try to break this down in terms you would understand.For the same reason that an HDTV would cost a small fortune five years ago and now anyone can buy one.The technology is more commonplace, no longer considered "advanced" and doesn't require extensive additional training to use....Show more

Clementina Collelo: Great, now that the costs have come down, competitio! n has done its work. The government should add the procedure to its sin! gle-payer universal health care plan, reimbursing providers for what it costs now.

Felipa Nosis: Guy you do realize that after you have the procedure you don't have to keep getting it over and over again right? So every person who has it done reduces demand. That means less and less business.You do realize that is what happens when supply outwieghs demand right? Prices fall? You know its kind of the whole idea behind recession.When it gets too cheap people performing it will leave that profession and become certified in somethign else, and then the prices will rise again. This is what your food would also do if farmers did not get subsidies....Show more

Darren Heling: Prices For Lasik

Carolynn Testani: Most insurance companies don't cover LASIK, so there is competition amongst facilities that provide the procedure. They can only charge what people are able to pay.