Lasik eye surgery has been around in Canada for decades, and in the past it was cheaper and generally considered safer to travel to one of the larger Canadian cities and schedule an appointment at a prominent lasik provider. One of the reasons the surgery was less expensive is because the industry was so much more mature than their US counterparts. Lasik has been a common practice in Canada for quite a long time, and there was a much greater supply of highly experienced lasik surgeons there. Following the laws of supply and demand, the supply was higher with the demand holding constant so experience was not as much of a price discriminator as it was or is in the United States.
Equipment cost was also less of an issue in Canada due to the maturity of the industry. It logically follows that part of lasik eye surgery cost structure is an amortization of the cost of the equipment over its useful life. Each procedure that the provider performs must pay a percentage of the total equipment cost, with the goal being to pay the equipment as soon as possible. Once this is accomplished, the provider can either increase their profit from each procedure, or lower their cost in relation to their competitors and draw in more clientele. Either way, the lasik surgery provider is brining in more revenue with the same overhead. To bring the point full circle, since the Canadian industry has been around for so many more years, a higher percentage of their cost is absorbed into previous procedures, and competition has forced them to lower their prices accordingly.
One of the other benefits to going over the border to take advantage of Canada's lasik surgery providers was the sheer amount of experience that each surgeon has amassed over the years. It's a proven fact that the more procedures that a given provider has performed, the more accurate their results are and the less mistakes they make. Ten years ago it wasn't uncommon for a provider to have performed over 5000 procedures in Canada. That type of number was unheard of in the United States. This not only gives the patient some reassurance that the lasik eye surgeon is experienced, but statistically it almost guarantees more accurate results, and that translates into better post surgery vision.
Over the years, some of these differentials have evened out. With the lasik industry in the United States reaching a higher level of acceptance and maturity, the cost and experience comparisons are more even than they were 10 years ago.
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