LASIK clinics advertise $299/eye prices that balloon to $2,000-$3,500/eye after undisclosed add-ons, with no federal price transparency requirement

LASIK surgery clinics routinely advertise prices as low as $299 or $695 per eye, but these advertised rates apply only to mild myopia corrections, and the actual cost for most patients reaches $2,000-$3,500 per eye after mandatory add-ons including wavefront-guided technology, femtosecond laser flap creation, post-operative medications, and enhancement procedures -- none of which are required to be disclosed in advertising. Why it matters: consumers make the decision to pursue LASIK based on deceptively low advertised prices, so they arrive for consultations already psychologically committed and are then upsold on 'premium' technology presented as medically necessary, so the actual average cost of $2,246 per eye ($4,492 for both eyes) is 3-7x the advertised price, so patients who cannot afford the real price either take on medical debt or proceed with the cheaper 'basic' option that may use older technology with higher complication rates, so the patients most harmed by bait-and-switch pricing are those least able to afford the premium procedure. The structural root cause is that LASIK is classified as an elective cosmetic procedure exempt from health insurance coverage, which means it operates in a cash-pay market with no insurer negotiating prices or requiring transparency, and the FTC has not applied its advertising substantiation doctrine specifically to LASIK pricing practices despite extensive consumer complaints about bait-and-switch tactics.