re: Are we sure optometrists should do eye surgery w/o going to medical school?

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My opinion on these matters is one of the reasons why I can't be considered a true libertarian. There are areas where regulation is needed.

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Although, it's done under the auspices of "the state" most of these medical regulations are all governed and set up pretty much exclusively by the medical providers themselves.

All the message board uber libertarians can shout and scream all they want, but within any framework, the practice of medicine and the regulation thereof, is going to look pretty much the same no matter what.

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Libertarianism always seems to die on peoples' doorsteps...

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I'm not an ophthalmologist and I really have no stake in this if the legislation passes.

That is my personal opinion of the issue in relation to patient safety, and compromising on patient safety isn't something I can do.

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Surgical procedures involving the eye are not like most other areas of the body. You screw up, it is essentially an amputation.

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understood and agreed, but...

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You can call it that, but I'd say that their statements are largely truthful and patient safety is a huge issue here.

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my skepticism comes not from the fact that i disagree with the above quoted. it comes from the fact that exactly how huge the issue truly is is something that CAN be quantified, yet it has not been.

instead, we hear general claims about safety and quality- which sounds just like what union labor always leans on, a purely rhetorical justification. now to some degree it may be true. to make the right decision on this, we need to know just how true it is. the fact that this information isn't being shared, and that simple rhetoric is being offered in its place, makes me suspicious.

i wouldn't call myself a true libertarian either. i am not one.

with this policy like any other, there are costs & benefits. we know that the benefits will show up in price and convenience of obtaining these services, as the supply of providers will rise. we can also reasonably suspect that the risks of receiving them will rise as well, as the average quality of the provider will go down.

but exactly how much this matters for these particular procedures at issue is something that is not being talked about in precise terms. i think it's reasonable to suspect that if there were a case to be made there, the ophthalmologists would be making it, and it's possibly quite telling that they aren't.

There is so much misinformation and scare tactics from both sides here, it is laughable. The optomitrists say they will get additional training and experience before they can do any expanded work, the opthamologists say the optomitrists will get none.

Seems like a simple solution. Have the state medical board decide what is needed to be able to do the surgeries, in the form of experience, education, training, etc. If any optomitrist wants to do the surgery, they can go and get that additional education and training.

Yes the bill allows optometrists to do surgery. Look it up. One is to shoot a hole in the iris, another is to shoot a hole in the membrane behind the lens of the eye..

Laser surgery is surgery. How do you think a laser works, just magic? How in the world can you have an effect without it invading the eye?

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perhaps the definition of surgery isn't quite as relevant as you suppose.

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It's pretty damn relevant to the topic at hand. Wouldn't you agree?

Surgery is most safely practice by those who fully understand what they're operating on

Ok, lemme tweak that. Once you have exhausted your youth studying hours per day as if you were taking college finals each week and have devoted yourself to the mastering of as much of the human body and its interaction with the environment as you can possibly learn.

Then it's ok to surgically alter patients eyes.

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Once you have exhausted your youth studying hours per day as if you were taking college finals each week and have devoted yourself to the mastering of as much of the human body and its interaction with the environment as you can

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maybe that level of mastery yields only a marginal improvement in the performance of surgeries like these.

doctors should not be protected from having to compete with improvements in technology and process innovations just because their training is extremely difficult and long.