CT Viewpoints: Connecticut Shouldn’t Restrict Access to Eye Care
By: Marilyn Moore –
In addition to being a State Senator serving Bridgeport, Trumbull, and Monroe, I am a lifelong resident of Bridgeport and community activist. As founder and president of The Witness Project, which seeks to address and reduce breast cancer mortality among low-income women, I see the consequences of health disparities every day.
In Connecticut, health disparities are a well-known problem among ethnic minorities such as African-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. House Bill 6012, An Act Concerning Consumer Protection in Eye Care, is currently pending before the legislature and raises major concerns in terms of health disparities.
The bill looks to prohibit eye doctors from using information obtained from an online test using a remote device (such as a phone app or other online application) as the sole basis for issuing a contact lens prescription and would require them to perform an in-person evaluation and eye examination of the patient before prescribing or renewing a prescription for contact lenses.