Hello everyone, I was looking for new medical eyeglasses, is it covered or not with NHI? and if not what the most reasonable place to find one? Thanks in advance
I’m assuming you mean prescription eyeglasses? Frames and lenses are not covered but the exam is with insurance. There are hundreds of eyeglass stores and their prices range from $500 to you name it for frames. Lenses are fairly cheap as well unless you go for all the extras. Many of these stores will also have frame and lens deals. Off the top of my head there’s a Japanese chain store called Jins. I’ve seen them all over the place, especially in malls. There are a few other Japanese chains that are very similar. Be careful of some of the stores that have a few cheap frames up front to pull you in and then they try and rip you off once you’re in the store. There are also a bunch of independent stores that sell super expense frames. If you plan on going that route, I’d be very careful because some of them sell fake designer frames. There’s also a no-frills Taiwanese chain store that I’ve seen all around. It sort of looks grey and uninteresting, but they’re very cheap and have some decent frames for under $1000.
Also, most shops will do a free digital eye exam. You can also go to an eye doctor and they can (hopefully) do a more thorough exam for $150 if you have insurance.
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Good post, thanks! I’ll merely add that I needed extra glasses, and since I’m “old-sighted” the graduated bifocals have much pricier lenses so I usually try to save on the frames. Last time, I didn’t find the large owlish size I like (I’m out of fashion apparently) and I asked the prescription eyewear section at Costco. They pointed me over to some polarized sunglasses on sale in another aisle and said they could put the lenses in those ~NT$300 frames. It was a good deal on the frames. Very happy they were willing to point a customer to frames that weren’t even in their department.
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Frames are a racket for the most part. Yes, there are handmade ones that are beautiful and made extremely well. But, most are just mass produced and often marketed as “designer” and “handmade” and priced at ridiculous prices.
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