A great example of Republicans serving their own interests and ignoring ours

[proud2BlibKansan]

This eye-testing mandate for kids looks bad
Kansas City Star Editorial

For an ugly vision of how Missouri’s Capitol operates, look no further than the current push to renew an expensive and unnecessary mandate requiring eye exams for children entering public school.

This mandate has been around since 2007. But families are allowed to opt out, and most do. Exams by optometrists cost about $100, and private insurance plans generally won’t cover them.

Now, a bill to renew the mandate is being fast-tracked through the House. The process reeks for multiple reasons. To cite a few:

House Speaker Steve Tilley assigned the bill to a friendly committee while bottling up a better bill proposing that the state drop the exam requirement and increase resources for vision screenings by school nurses. Tilley, a Republican from Perryville, is hardly neutral in the matter. He is a practicing optometrist and the recipient of $10,000 in donations from the Missouri Optometric Association last year.




Read more here: http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/eye-testing-mandate-kids-looks-bad/#storylink=cpy

[LadyHawkAZ]

1. I am shocked — shocked— to find that gambling is going on in here!

[liberal N proud]

2. Tilley is just a concerned eye doctor who ran for office so he could help

Fatten his own wallet.

Prime example of the way greed is driving America.

[RKP5637]

3. So typical of many politicians, weasel your way into office for personal financial gain.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. No, he's helping children!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Typical unfunded mandate.

Kids need eye exams to detect problems and even if they just need glasses.
When I was little, the school nurse was about fifteen feet away with a light box and class was going on at the same time in the classroom. She said to point which direction the Es were facing. I kept saying quietly "I can't see that" about fifty times.

Nobody heard me. I say that the idea that the school nurse catches most eye problems is bullshit. A lot of schools don't even have a school nurse anymore.

In second grade, my mom finally took me to an eye doctor. She wondered why I always had my nose stuck in a book. She found out that I was quite nearsighted, and she felt stupid. She said "We thought you would tell us". Then how is a kid supposed to know they can't see? I certainly did not know.

I had a cousin who was put in slow classes all the way through high school. Her parents were schoolteachers. Finally in high school they found out she had a pointy cornea and that's why she couldn't see. She eventually got a corneal transplant.

Now if this stuff happens to kids in middle-class families, I can imagine how much worse it is in lower income families. The Repubs had better damn well fund exams and eyeglasses for the kids if they are going to mandate it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. All of our schools have nurses

I believe they legislated that a couple years ago.

Also the eye exams are done individually by the nurse in her office and we also have a team that comes once a year for individual vision and hearing screenings.

So in this state, the school really can take care of this. There is no reason to mandate a $100+ exam that most insurance plans don't cover.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Who pays for the glasses? What if the parents can't afford them?

I have always thought that insurance companies were bastards, especially because they do not pay for eyeglasses or dental work. I literally cannot function without my glasses on. They are on the nightstand within arm's reach when I am sleeping. They are on my face when I'm vertical. And there are millions more just like me, or who are even more nearsighted than I am. The focal distance in my GOOD eye is about six inches.

And dental problems can kill you -- see the kids that have abscessed teeth and die from a massive systemic infection.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. At my school, we have partnerships

with several area places, LensCrafters, WalMart, etc. We can almost always get glasses for kids who can't afford them.

Schools are beginning to build dental clinics. You're right - that's a huge problem. Many dentists won't take pediatric Medicaid patients.