Agnès Buzyn promises us an improved reimbursement of glasses. But from diagnosis to purchase, there is no lack of conflict zones … Consequence: patients have blurred vision.
If the number of television commercials reflects the vitality of a market, that of the “glasses” is doing like a charm. According to the most recent studies, a pair of glasses costs on average 384 euros for a frame equipped with single vision lenses, and 589 euros with progressive lenses. Or about 3 times its purchase price! Admittedly, opticians hastened to deny these assertions, even giving unbeatable prices, especially on the Internet. But the size of the storefronts of major brands, on the most beautiful avenues of all our cities, puts a damper on a certain lesson in media miserability.
Too long a wait
We start with the specialist doctor, the “ophthalmologist”. With the increase in life expectancy, the number of clients varies inversely with that of doctors. As a result, hundreds of thousands of patients are not detected, therefore not treated or with unthinkable appointment delays a few years ago; The Academy of Medicine estimates that in 2020 it will not be possible to see an eye specialist without waiting for long months, or even years. The answer according to medical specialists unhappy with this situation is called orthoptists.
The eyewear market is a battle of eyesight
There are many procedures in ophthalmology, such as controlling eyesight, which do not require the dozen years required to train a specialist. In 3 years of study, after the baccalaureate, orthoptists become assistants capable of tackling a large part of the examination, obviously under the control of the ophthalmologist.
It is also important that this doctor-orthoptist association be privileged and not the optician-optometrist that sellers of glasses recommend to relieve ophthalmic surgeries. It is not good in medicine to combine prescriber and salesperson. Physicians and pharmacists have all disappeared in the name of this principle.
The market of 30 million spectacle wearers weighs 5.7 billion euros and reimbursement by mutuals is still limited: we understand the necessary vigilance. The fight “orthoptists” (trained by the faculty of medicine) against optometrists (trained by the faculty of science) rages on … The latter claim the right to perform medical acts, the sale of glasses and rehabilitation. In the United States, some are already operating for myopia, which explains the outcry of French doctors.
A necessary regulation
Health authorities will have to be vigilant. A little more than they were for the eyewear market. Their high price is, it seems, justified by the too large number of opticians trained each year in our country. In the meantime, consumers have blurred vision, but cannot ask their ophthalmologist for advice; these have – theoretically – not the right… So the price is not a guarantee, in both directions besides, and the Internet in this field a jungle without rules, one can only continue to suffer.
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