If eye exams were really that necessary, they wouldn’t be selling readers in every drug store in the country.
Should you get an exam? Yes. Should you need to if your vision hasn’t changed? Nope. This whole “gotta have a two-year current prescription” nonsense has got to go.
Alternatively, they sell readers because folks can't afford eye exams and/or proper glasses. I'd guess that the majority of people I sold readers to working in retail pharmacy were this group.
All that said, a number of folks were told to simply get some readers by their doctor - because they only needed the glasses for such things. And honestly, if this is what you need, more power to you. I'm of the subgroup that finds readers absolutely useless: I am nearsighted. Glasses help me greatly with night vision, driving, watching TV, and other such things but I take them off to read.
I do agree that folks shouldn't need to update their prescription every year or two, mostly because it is silly. If we want medical checkups for the eyes, then we need to cover the exam as a medical exam through regular health insurance... even if we don't cover the glasses. Of course, I think dentistry should be covered similarly as well.
Past edit time but, for clarity: I was talking about the renewal exams not ANY eye exam. Of course you shouldn’t just YOLO it and buy some random magnification.
Machines will likely be able to do this if they can’t already, but my main point was around the exam being a barrier to a purchase, not that you should NEVER get an eye exam.
Fair point after re-reading my above as if it were out of context of the article. I am not trying to say you should not get qualified advice - you should! But if my prescription is working for me 2-3 years in and I lose my glasses, there should not be a barrier to getting the glasses. I brought up the readers sold without a prescription to illustrate the point.
I get it, it's like two bad things (out of pocket health care for preventative medicine, and optician profit lobbying) have combined to make it worse for everybody, to make sure rich people have regular eye exams.
But the solution should be eye exams every 12-24 months; for everyone earning above a tax threshold, the Govt takes $50/year whether you have an exam or not (okay, with an exception for those without eyes/sight). When you go to get lenses you can get an exam without any extra cost. If you want to get lenses with an old prescription you can.
Should you get an exam? Yes. Should you need to if your vision hasn’t changed? Nope. This whole “gotta have a two-year current prescription” nonsense has got to go.