I can see clearly now...a broken system turns a blind eye to patient abuse

​See these stories:
"What are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry"
"How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all"

I was a poor struggling resident. But my mother needed glasses and couldn't afford them. We scraped and planned and finally managed to get her glasses after years of when she should have had them. I distinctly remember the sense of outrage I felt at paying some ridiculous amount like $750 for the lowest end glasses that obviously didn't cost more than $25 to make -- if estimated generously.  But there was no other choice -- someone had obviously captured the market and had a monopoly.

​I was a poor struggling resident. But my mother needed glasses and couldn't afford them. We scraped and planned and finally managed to get her glasses after years of when she should have had them. I distinctly remember the sense of outrage I felt at paying some ridiculous amount like $750 for the lowest end glasses that obviously didn't cost more than $25 to make -- if estimated generously.  But there was no other choice -- someone had obviously captured the market and had a monopoly.

Twenty-five years later, apparently this situation has yet to be remedied. Why are soulless business entities allowed to prey upon entire populations at their weakest points, unchecked and often lauded as "successful?" Don't we have elected government representatives that make society work for us citizens?  Aren't monopolies supposed to be illegal? We talk about how out of control healthcare costs are and that we get very little for our money.  Here is a glaring, in-your-face (literally) example of how fundamentally broken things are, AND that what we have been doing doesn't work to fix it.

So...we unite and we fix things.  Welcome to Patients United.