Ok, I did some research and here's what I found. There are the bargain centers that will perform the surgery for $500, but only 3% of the people have a correction factor for that price. Most are over $1,000. So, I guess I got "took" I listened to the radio and thought I understood. My bad. Here's an informative link: Cost of LASIK Eye Surgery (Updated November 2006) - AllAboutVision.com
My wife looked at it late last year and was quoted $5K. I told her to go ahead and do it but she chickened out. Now she regrets it but she's going to have to wait until next year so I can set up a pre-tax medical care account - that was my only condition on blowing the $$ for the surgery. I didn't set one up this year.