Long time lurker. Joined today to ask for help/strategies to pay for me eye surgery.
Background: So I have struggled with uncomfortable contacts and really thick lensed glasses since I was in preschool. And frankly even with the corrective glasses and contacts my vision still doesn't seem to be that great.
My dad is now without glasses for the first time in his life thanks to cataract surgery and it has seemed to be a wonderful transformation for his life. I know some coworkers who recently got Lasik, and friends here and there who have gotten it in the past and they all agree its life changing and worth the money and getting past your fears.
So I tried to go about this the smart way. Instead of going to a conveyor belt Lasik pop up place, I went to my usual optometrist to get an exam and referral to the Lasik places she recommended.
Du du duuu. My prescription is too bad and I'm not a Lasik candidate. So they recommended me for ICL. I read up on ICL and said no way Jose, after finding out its inserting something into your eyeball and cutting into the eye etc.
But after more research, it seems like it's actually the better option of the two. Although with my prescription (myopia and astigmatism) I'd still have to get Lazik on top of the ICL to correct my astigmatism.
Financial decisions: So I looked at two eye surgeons that are associated with the Lasik places my optometrist refers to in the area. One is Price Vision Group. The other is Eye Surgeons.
At Price, it would be about $3,600 per eye for the ICL and then $1250 or so per eye for the corrective Lasik afterwards. .... Ouch.
At Eye Surgeons, they quoted it would be about $3600 per eye for the ICL and the corrective Lasik afterwards is included in the price.
A reputable place in Florida that my friend had Lasik at that is about the same cost for ICL and Lasik but I ruled out because additional travel cost and hotel costs, days off from work etc.
After talking to the staff, based on how easily they could answer my questions and how helpful (Me to Eye Surgeons- "How can you offer it at a lower price and include the Lasik all the other places I checked Lasik is an additional cost. Staff: I don't know we just can...:( ) and polite they were and on some of the anecdotal stories they gave me about patients and the surgery, I decided to go with Price even though it will cost more.
All the places offer health credit cards. What I've read says that the health credit cards usually offer 0% financing for 16-24 months. But they catch you with interest from beginning of charge if you miss a single payment or don't pay it off in the allotted amount of time.
I've looked at regular credit cards with 0% apr for 16-24 months but the trick would be qualifying for a $10k + limit and the 0% apr.
If I'm super aggressive with payments, I could probably pay off the $10k in a year and a half. So I'm comfortable with the allotted amount of time in theory. I'm just not super comfortable with longer term paying down like that and having a rolling debt to pay off. Especially since I recently lost my job of 6 years due to layoffs and the company doing poorly and had to rely on savings while I scrambled to find a new one. So the idea of having a high payment debt if that were to happen again makes me anxious.
Right now I pull in about 3200 a month after all deductions from my paychecks. I pay about 800 in rent. And maybe like 400 in other bills.
I have the money to just pay it up front out of pocket. But my savings would be gone. Completely obliterated. Again it's already greatly diminished from being without a job for some time. But I feel more comfortable paying it up front and not having an outstanding debt I have to pay off.
But my savings habits to rebuild that savings account haven't been very great. (Addicted to Amazon, takeout, and traveling :( ) So I'm worried if I decimate it, I won't be disciplined in rebuilding it. But I am very disciplined in paying bills and know I would make sure to pay a monthly bill.
My vision plan doesn't cover any of the surgery. And only covers the lasik with select lasik centers and the one affiliated with Price is not in that list.
My health insurance doesn't cover it because its considered an elective surgery and not medically necessary.
I've basically spent a few months stressing out over the best way to pay this and if I've missed any helpful loopholes or something that could help mitigate the huge upfront or long term cost.
Help!
Tl;Dr Need help planning on how to finance/pay for $10k elective eye surgery.
Submitted August 15, 2017 at 09:05PM by paying_for_icl http://ift.tt/2vBYU4t