"Do you have Medicare or Senior Advantage?"
No.
"Since you are in Hawaii, did you have it done at Kaiser Permanente?"
No. There are only a few surgeons in the state that do this surgery. I don't know if any of them are Kaiser doctors. I had mine done here:
https://www.hawaiivisionspecialists.com/
I did exhaustive research on these implants before I got them and one of the takeaways was that the skill of the surgeon was the biggest factor in measuring outcomes, especially for astigmatism.
It was expensive. You get what you pay for. If the surgeon has a laser-equipped office for cataract surgery, somebody with medicare may not get laser if medicare only pays for scalpel surgery. It's not because the scalpel costs the surgeon less, it's because the liability insurance for the laser machine isn't going to cover the surgeon for a scalpel-only medicare procedure. And on top of the procedure, there is the cost of the multi-focal implant that medicare isn't going to cover. That is 100% out of pocket regardless of insurance or lack thereof. To clarify, I didn't get LASIK. There is a separate type of laser-assist surgery for cataracts that is specific to that disease that "comes with" the purchase of a premium inter-ocular lens implant. It speeds accuracy (increases outcomes) and drastically reduces healing time compared to using knives. I don't know if having the laser equipment is a requirement for these implants, but I wouldn't use a surgeon that didn't have the laser machine.
So part of the success of the procedure is the implant, and some is the surgeon, some of it is the laser, and the insurance is none of it. I haven't received all my bills yet, but I'm guessing at the end (and I have "good" private insurance) is that insurance pays about 10%. Of course a lot of that is just having the procedure done in Hawaii where medical bills aren't exempted from sales tax. The implants were $3,200 each ($6,400) but over $6,700 after sales tax. That is just for the materials implanted into the eyes, not procedures and other costs.
After insurance paid, my out of pocket to get vision restored is over $7,000 but I think it will clock out just under $8k. To put into perspective, that is more money than I have spent on anything else in my life other than child's education or real estate (I've never owned a new car) and caused me to readjust my retirement plans. In other words, it was one of the biggest investments I've ever made, it's not something that can be put into a spreadsheet to determine if medicare this or insurance that. One either accepts poor restoration of their vision at little cost, or they spend a fortune and see great again. It SUCKS. But that's life right now.
Is it worth it? It seems like it now but only time will tell. I know people who had medicare-funded cataract surgery and they are all still wearing glasses and I can see better than any of them, and I'm not wearing glasses or anything. Also, I've had to tell everybody in my family their only Christmas present this year is knowing I can see well again. It all comes down to priorities.