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A RESOLUTION OF THE TEXAS OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION WHEREAS, the Texas Optometric Association, consisting of the over- whelming majority of optometrists practicing in the State of Texas, is vitally concerned with legislation affecting the public visual health and welfare; and WHEREAS, there has been introduced into the Fifty-Fifth Session of the Texas Legislature a bill to license so-called ophthalmic dispensers, which bill is House Bill No. 1 and Senate Bill No. 104; and WHEREAS, it is the consensus of opinion of the members of the Texas Op- tometric Association that if such a bill should become law the visual well- being of the people of the State of Texas would be placed in grave danger be- cause such law would permit and authorize persons of limited education and training to perform services now limited by law to persons licensed as physi- cians and surgeons or optometrists who have had extensive and thorough educa- tion and training; and WHEREAS, physicians and optometrists now licensed under the laws of this State are charged with the full and complete responsibility for the vis- ual care of their patients to the extent of assuring that their prescriptions are accurately filled and correctly dispensed, and the licensing of ophthalmic dispensers would result in dividing the responsibility for such visual care, making it difficult or impossible for the patient to fix responsibility, re- sulting in confusion to the general public; and WHEREAS, House Bill No. 1 and Senate Bill No. 104 purport to license persons of limited education and training to fit contact lenses which by its very nature requires the inserting of lenses and fluids in, and the measuring of the human eye; and WHEREAS, the said bill creates a new state agency at a time when State government is already overburdened with board upon overlaping board and in- creases the trend toward governmental control over private enterprises; and WHEREAS, such a bill would result in a monopoly for a small group of licensed technicians in a field which is now competitive with no benefit to the general public; and WHEREAS, such a bill does not protect the public by requiring adequate standards of material or workmanship; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Texas Optometric Association that it be made known to the Legislature of the State of Texas and its Honorable Members that the overwhelming majority of optometrists throughout the State of Texas are opposed to House Bill No. 1 and Senate Bill No. 104 both in form and in substance.
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