Went to the eye doctor for a new glasses prescription. Eye doctor recommended me to a specialist because she suspected my astigmatism was actually a worsening corneal disease. Went to the specialist, and the suspicion was confirmed. So now I'll have to go to a different eye doctor who makes specialty contact lenses specifically for this disease, since glasses will never be able to get me to see well/comfortably. With the contacts, I'll actually see 20/20 again, which I haven't done in a decade.
The initial eye doctor visit had to be filed through my vision insurance, which used up my one eye doctor visit for the year. The specialist was covered under the medical insurance. Because I've used my one eye doctor visit, I'll have to pay out of pocket for the eye exam at the new eye doctor's office. Once I've had my eye exam, if he agrees with the specialist's diagnosis, then he'll argue with my insurance that the contacts need to be covered by medical insurance. Hopefully he can convince them, because I'll be looking at ~$1000 for the contacts. My dad also has this corneal disease (it's genetic) and his isn't as severe as mine, but his insurance would only cover one pair of contacts. Any future pairs will have to be out of pocket, even if his prescription changes.
There's also a procedure the specialist recommends I do ASAP, because it basically stalls the progression of the disease. There's nothing to correct it, so this procedure is the best chance to keep my vision from worsening. As it is, I won't go completely blind, but eventually the condition would worsen to the point that I need a cornea transplant, which is invasive eye surgery. This procedure would basically freeze the progress at the point it is whenever I have the procedure done.
There's no insurance that covers this procedure, because no insurance deems it "medically necessary", because I won't go blind, and there's an alternative solution (the invasive surgery)... Nevermind that my eyesight would just continue to worsen until it reaches the point that the surgery is medically necessary. The procedure is ~$3500 per eye, not counting days missed from work for recovery/check-ups, and not including any complications that could arise.
Yeah, that procedure isn't happening any time soon.