I have been searching for ways to reduce cost in my ICL procedure. Considering that I do the procedure in Shinagawa Kinshi Clinic and someone refer me a code the maximum amount of reduction I can get is 50k yen, which is good. But one of my acquaintances did his LASIK procedure in USA and was able to do it for free using various methods, I will give his explanation here and would like to ask what other ways are there in Japan to reduce the cost further.
His explanation-
>A lasik surgery (top of the line) would set you back by \~5k USD but don’t worry thanks thanks to Capitalism we ain’t gonna pay any of that.
>
>Step 1: Get a coupon from Groupon (There you $1000 instantly off for a $50 coupon)
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>[https://www.groupon.com/…/the-lasik-vision-institute](https://www.groupon.com/…/the-lasik-vision-institute)…
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>Step 2: Get a Chase Sapphire Credit Card, you get $1250 worth of reward points when you spend $4,000 which you just did 😉 (Pro tip: Uncle Sam designed the US tax system take money from the poor i.e. you pay taxes on Cash Back cards which is used by us, while reward points are not taxable, we can cry about it or better yet we we are going to hack the system by sticking to rewards here 😉 )
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>If you need a Chase Sapphire referral, let me know, you get some and I get some and we both win 😉
>
>Step 3: The steps above brought our payable down to 2750, don’t worry where there is a will there is a way. So Canada being a social well fare haven has a tax of 50% which means anything you write off is an instant 50% discount. So lets write off 4k in medical expenses shall we, there you go enjoy your 2k!
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>Step 4: So in the US, FSA is always front loaded which means you can actually spend 2,750 without paying for it upfront. Reimburse yourself from your FSA account and put it an index fund with 15% YOY while you pay that down monthly.
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>If you followed all the steps above congratulations, not only you got top of the line procedure for free but you also made some extra money by getting it depending on the market movement 😉
This this guide helped you by any means I am happy for you, and please pay it forward \^\^
These feel like a lot of steps but I would like to still search for possible ways to reduce the cost further.
7 comments
Not sure how Canada fit into all this. 50% to reclaim?
I strongly recommend the exact opposite of what your acquintance is instructing.
Groupon is a marketing tactic to get new customers with the hope that they’ll become repeat customers. Why a one-and-done eye surgery would warrant that is beyond me. Not the kind of thing where you want the back alley discount option.
And #4 essentially boils down to “take out a loan and pay it off”, if your friend thinks they got something for free here, maybe they need to retake middle school math.
Does this post have anything to do with Japan? This post is really only relevant to US and Canadian dual citizens, and even then half of his steps are flat out wrong/bullshit.
I think your friend is making stuff up. But again, this has nothing to do with Japan.
I recently did ICL, and got a couple discounts (J partner set it up through signing up for some beauty coupons, I can ask how they did it if you’re interested), but if I remember, it only knocked off a couple 万. In the end, we still paid about 550,000 yen. Otherwise, I’m not aware of any bigger discounts in terms of health insurance write-offs.
Anyone more knowledgeable, please let me know!
> put it an index fund with 15% YOY while you pay that down monthly.
Does that mean 15% year on year growth? In which case what’s the name of the fund?
Utter BS and your friend is an idiot probably up to his eyeballs in debt but with ‘pointz’
It is possible to take a tax deduction in Japan for eye surgery. See Q3 on the NTA’s website: https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/1122_qa.htm
Absolutely plan ahead for this as it can save a significant amount of money.
As far as the rest goes: it’s your eyes. You have only two of them, and you will probably only do this surgery once. While it’s not necessarily the case that the most expensive option is the best, it’s also not a good idea to choose solely based on what is the cheapest.