The Cost of Eye Care !

Once again the cost of health insurance is under the spotlight.  A proposal is being considered to divide cover into basic, bronze, silver and gold premium categories, with many existing services only provided within the more expensive options.   Those proposed exclusions include cataract, bariatric, spinal and some orthopaedic surgery taken out of reach of average policy holders.

The prospect of cataract surgery becoming only affordable by the rich contrasts with the many low cost providers of this service and the general huge discounting of eye care and spectacle provision by two giant optical chains operating in Australia.   It is generally conceded that the cost of eye care is now at the lowest level for decades.

As we age, our vision deteriorates and we find we hold reading matter further away to try and achieve clarity.  The remedy is a quick and simple minor operation in which the lens of the eye is replaced. Most patients are astonished when the next day they open their newspaper and find they can read the print without the need for glasses.

Sadly, a lot of cataract sufferers  never seek this relief because they are convinced that eye surgery will be performed without an anaesthetic.   The prospect of a scalpel being applied to an eye while the patient is awake is terrifying, and that is simply a fallacy.   A cataract patient undergoes a mild anaesthetic and has no memory of the procedure, which is administered without any feeling of pain or discomfort.   It is indeed minor surgery and takes just a few minutes to complete.

The two widely advertised eye care chains employ trained eye technicians who operate the latest technology to determine eye health and this is covered by Medicare.   The prescription spectacles they provide are heavily discounted and while they do not do cataract surgery, they provide a referral to eye surgeons who provide this service.

There are thousands of Australians with poor eyesight that could be corrected with glasses and many suffer cataract replacement needs that can not be corrected by spectacles.  At the very time that eye care is becoming more affordable the health insurance industry seems inclined to take one of the basic needs of sight restoration and put it further out of reach of many people.

Perhaps the biggest disinformation repelling patients from seeking cataract surgery is this contention that it is performed without an anaesthetic.    Word of mouth from patients who have had cataract surgery is slowly dispelling that untruth and it is essential that cataract replacement remains on the basic level of health insurance.