This Thursday, March 23, 2017, the Observatory of prices and coverage in medical optics (under the direction of the Ministry of Health) published its first report. And the numbers aren’t really encouraging…
We first learn that 70% of French people wear glasses or contact lenses after the age of 20; 96% of people over 50 suffer from vision problems. In kindergarten (in the large section), 18% of children wear glasses or corrective lenses and 8% do not wear them but have a blurred vision by far In addition, 15% of CMU beneficiaries bought at least one piece of optical equipment in 2015. “Access to optical equipment is therefore a major issue for public health and access to care” underline the experts.
Insufficient social security coverage
Problem: Glasses are getting more and more expensive. In 2014, the average price of a pair of glasses for policyholders (excluding CMU) amounts to 434 euros – 316 € for a pair of glasses with two single vision lenses; 613 for a pair of glasses with two multifocal lenses. This represents an average increase of 1.35% per year between 2006 and 2014. Over the same period, French optical expenditure increased by 59%.
And coverage by Social Security is very limited. On average, in 2015, Health Insurance reimbursed 3.2% of total optical consumption – which amounts to 6.1 billion euros in France. Public funding (including state medical aid and CMU) thus represents 4.3% of this total consumption.
It is mainly the complementary organizations that are the main funders of medical optics, with a support of approximately 72%. Families still have to pay 24% of the price of their optical device, i.e. an expenditure of 1.5 billion euros in 2015. According to the ministerial report, in 2014, 1 in 10 adults (between 18 and 64 years) benefiting from private complementary health insurance has given up buying glasses or contact lenses for financial reasons…
