I got quite a scare today when I went to buy new glasses. Even with insurance they were going to cost me almost $800! Our company changed vision insurance this past enrollment, and it turns out the new one is lousy. They only have a couple of vendors for us to use - the most expensive ones of course. And since my prescription is a whopping "blind as a bat" minus 16, only a couple of companies make the lenses in a no-line bifocal. I was going to go with a no-line bifocal as an alternative to lined trifocals. The insurance doesn't pay well on either one. Well, guess the folks who make strong lenses are proud of their fancy material! The optician got to digging around, though, and found out that their house brand of lenses had recently expanded their prescription range to include my lenses, at about half the cost of the pricier ones. PTL!! Still ended up paying $500 with tax, but at least in a couple of weeks I'll have new glasses.