> an insurance system that's designed to benefit only Luxottica (via their stranglehold of both insurance companies AND lens producers).
How is this a thing? Couldn't a startup come in and trounce them by offering $10 frames and lenses? The optics aren't that complicated, and frames are... plastic?
Eyeglasses are an interesting example of a market failure - customers have been paying 10x the actual price for an important item, for 20+ years, and the market hasn't fixed it.
In Beijing I used to just head down to Panjiayuan Zhaojia Glasses City and get pairs for ~15 bucks. Rest your head on a machine that reads your prescription, pick out frames, bargain, 30 minutes later you have your glasses.
In the US glasses are medicalized, which hides the reality that glasses are really cheap and simple to make; for people without money this causes real harm.
They had a deal at that time too - $99 for exam and one frame/lens set, done in a couple hours.
They're fine - have worn every day for 3 years. No 'insurance' to worry about.
And then to deal with the sheer operations (talking like ten thousand plus frames per day).
However, it's not for everyone. For one, it's out of network for insurance providers, so you have to deal with paperwork yourself and the deductible is high. Also since they are online only, you have to adjust it yourself, which isn't always easy. And being online only means you can't try it on beforehand.
If you have a reasonable Rx, Zinni are likely using finished lenses. Polarized have to been surfaced in the lab.
You can get polarized glasses from Amazon for $20.
Zenni gets you in the door with a low base price then slams you with the add ons.
I actually got a pair of prescription tinted (as in sunglass tint) aviator high-index frames w/ lenses for about $110.
There was a site, myopticalshop.com that could do high-index rimless for $150, I haven’t checked in awhile, though.
[edit]
So, the rimless frames are $50 and 1.74 index lenses are an additional $129.
Unfortunately, nobody wants to change this because insurers love charging premium rates for low risk recurring costs, providers love obscuring their prices, and consumers have come to demand their insurance covers “the basics”.
Ultimately even with insurance it is often cheaper to go outside of Luxottica's network, but many people don't even check and just assume that because they have reduced cost "insurance" that it will be cheaper to stay within Luxottica's spiderweb.
The way you solve this is to split up Luxottica via strong competition controls. Have one retail giant and one eye insurance company, not one monolith doing both.
Luxottica owns EyeMed, which isn't VSP.
Luxottica just purchased Essilor -- so, now, one company handles the insurance, frames, and lenses...turning it into a bigger monster.
This also already exists with companies like zenni optical.
See https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-luxottica-own-80-of-t...
No mention that Luxottica merged with Essilor a year or two back. Essilor are mainly lenses, but also have a range of premium and designer frame brands they bought. EssilorLuxottica has a huge portion of the resulting market. No idea if it gets near or past 80% now, but they're a $50bn company.