Half of optometrists think the Obama administration’s health care reform plan will be bad for optometry, according to our latest online poll. Only about one in six O.D.s (17%) think it will be good for the profession.


But the proposed health care reform legislation is being revised constantly, and a final bill has yet to be hammered out in Congress.


On October 29, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) was introduced. The House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on it on November 7. This major bill includes several provisions that could benefit optometrists, such as the amendment that defines O.D.s as physicians under the Medicaid statute, which would then require state Medicaid programs to cover services furnished by optometrists.