Ontario's Vision for Us is a Scam

I mentioned CBC's Marketplace earlier in the week, and can't recommend their most recent telecast enough.

Canadians who require prescription eyewear, watch that video. If you choose not to watch the video, I'll give you the gist but keep in mind that I can't rewatch the video here at work so I may be playing fast and loose with some details:

As most people suspect, we overpay for eyeglasses, much as we overpay for everything else. However, the mark-up for glasses is astronomical. Frames - a few sticks of plastic or metal and a few screws - and lens together are worth about $20. Shit you not. Marketplace sent a woman to Lenscrafters for a pair of glasses, and she was charged something ridiculous, I seem to recall the figure being $700+. She then bought a similar pair of glasses at ClearlyContacts.ca and paid a fraction of that price. The two pairs were then taken to a professor at the University of Waterloo for his analysis of their overall quality. I'm sure you can guess at his verdict...

Bruce Bergez and his wife had a business in Hamilton, Ontario called 'Great Glasses', where they tested their customers' vision then sold them corrective eyewear. They were never misleading about what they were doing. They tested vision and nothing else; they could not - and did not try to - diagnose astigmatism, cataracts, etc., and encouraged customers to have their eyes routinely tested by optometrists. The Bergezs sold affordable, corrective eyewear to customers, and the customers were happy. 

The College of Optometrists of Ontario was not. The college's rules, along with provincial laws, dictate that only doctors can prescribe glasses, and the couple were ordered to stop. They didn't, because they (rightly, sez I) believed they weren't doing anything wrong. The battle went all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the court refused to hear his appeal. Bruce spent a year in jail, and after losing his house and his business, he still owes $17 million in fines (the largest contempt fine in Canadian history). Bruce's wife is still under house arrest. Ankle bracelet and all. Good thing they didn't murder anybody, eh?

When his wife's house arrest is over, the man says, they will be packing up their crates of frames and moving out to British Columbia to start all over again (i.e. start chipping away at those ridiculous fines). No such rules about who can provide what exist in that province.

Marketplace also revealed that Lenscrafters, Sears Optical, Sunglass Hut and several other eyewear providers are owned by the same umbrella corporation, Luxottica, and this Italian global corporation produces pretty much all of the 'designer' frames (Chanel, Gucci, Ray Ban, Tiffany, you name it) that we snatch up as well. I guess they pay designers for the use of the names, but those frames don't come from the designers. Luxottica makes more money off of these frames than the designers do, I am more than sure. 

(For curiosity's sake, here is Luxottica's biggest competitor.)

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There is a key bit of information kept from customers when they are being fitted for glasses: pupillary distance, or PD. This is, of course, the distance between pupils and it ensures that the eyes and lenses are properly aligned. You may see a field on your prescription sheet for that, Ontario folks, and it will always be empty. It is measured by optometrists or opticians and never shared with customers, and it's been decided that they don't have to share that with us. There is no reason for denying us that information, other than restricting us to shopping where they want us to shop and paying what they want us to pay.

(The General Optical Council in the UK has also decided that the optometrist / optician has the right to withhold this information from patients / customers.)

I found this blog today. Looks like it's a bitch to get your PD from anyone. But measuring it isn't rocket science, and fitting someone for glasses is not the same as fitting someone for a prosthetic limb, or prescribing pills for a thyroid condition. It's just not the same. 

Blogger's name is Ira, by the way. He seems like a good man to me. So I've shared the CBC's Marketplace episode with him. If he weighs in, I'll share his comments with you, or you can check in with him yourself.

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At the CBC site, I fully expected to see opticians comment. They should. But so should I, and I deserve choices. I can't afford $500 eyeglasses. Many insurance companies cap their vision options at about $300 every two years (and those are the better plans). Others allow plan members to use their healthcare spending account for eyewear, and do away with vision plans all together. 

So I've selected a few frames at ClearlyContacts.ca. I will, after the careful assistance of my spouse and then my daughter (because thankfully, they both know how to use rulers), submit my PD as part of my prescription. I will place an order. I'll keep you posted on what I decide to buy, how much it costs, how they fit when I try them on and of course, what the optician tells me when I ask them to adjust them for me.

More later, I promise. In the meantime, please share this entry with anyone you think might be interested.