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Eyes Wide Open

BY JUSTIN OWEN

December 3, 2014 9:13AM

The Tennessee Board of Optometry has passed a new rule building barriers between patients and low prices, quite literally. The new rule would require optometrists in big-box retailers like Walmart to “physically separate” from the retailer. The thought is that we blurry-eyed Tennesseans are too dumb to know that we don’t have to purchase the retailers’ product if we are forced to walk through their store to get to the eye doctor. The result will of course be higher prices resulting from the state’s interference in the market. So much for Tennessee showing the rest of the country how to shun the nanny state. But this does remind me, I need to schedule an eye exam before prices get too high. http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2014/12/01/changes-coming-optometrists-retail-stores/19758345/ -Justin Owen