Eye specialists want Cabinet to help parents struggling to afford child's glasses

Orthoptists are seeing an increase in parents who cannot afford their child's glasses, according to Trouw. Therefore, they are calling on the minister to compensate parents for their child's glasses via their basic insurance premium. "Glasses are not a luxury item."

The associations for orthoptists, optometrists, ophthalmologists, and the Dutch Eye Association made this plea during a conference of the Stichting Blindenhulp, which is the Blind Aid Foundation.

These organizations have noticed that parents are having more and more trouble affording their children's glasses. They estimate that 28,000 children have families that struggle to afford them.

The Dutch Orthoptic Society conducted a survey to get a better view of the issue. This was filled in by 220 orthoptists. Three-quarters of the respondents feel that some parents cannot afford their child's glasses on at least a monthly basis. For 14 percent, this thought occurs weekly or daily.

Ruth van Nispen, chair of Vision 2020, a project in which the group is trying to eliminate poor vision and avoidable blindness in the Netherlands, said the numbers are painful. "Glasses are not a luxury item," said Van Nispen. "Access to good glasses is of crucial importance for children and unmissable for equal opportunity in society."

The organizations involved had sent a letter with this message to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in June. Van Nispen said that there was no response to the letter. That is why the organizations have made this public appeal.

Fleur Agema, the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, responded that she, too, finds it "very important that all children who need glasses have access to this, including in situations that the parents cannot afford them."

She also pointed out that families can apply for a budget to purchase children's glasses through the special assistance provided by the municipality. However, she admitted that this solution is unsatisfactory.

Agema confirmed that the letter from the organizations arrived at the ministry in June but has not received a response yet because she is still discussing the issue with the National Health Care Institute.

Glasses for children are generally not reimbursed in the Netherlands. The rare occasions that this does happen are when glasses are needed for severe medical defects, injuries, or eye diseases.

A medical indication is only given for exceptionally high strength from plus ten or minus six. However, according to the World Health Organization, a child without glasses with a relatively low refractive error, such as minus 1.5, is already "functionally visually impaired."