Spain to pay 100 euros towards cost of glasses or contact lenses for children under age of 16

Central government will pay 100 euros towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses for all children in Spain under 16 years of age who need them. During the announcement of this new measure, PM Pedro Sánchez said that his office is working on making the royal decree active by the start of the next school year.

Vision problems, such as myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism, are becoming increasingly common among children and adolescents. According to the World Health Organization, young people are facing a pandemic of myopia, in many cases aggravated by the excessive use of electronic screens and the abandonment of games in the street, in daylight.

For this reason, 'Plan Veo' will transfer 48 million euros to organisations, which will make sure that every child under the age of 16 receives an aid amount of 100 euros when purchasing spectacles or contact lenses at the opticians.

The Ministry of Health estimates that this aid could benefit half a million children, regardless of household income. Minister Mónica García highlighted that this health plan is a step closer to eradicating visual poverty.

To be entitled to the aid, the child must go to the optician with a prescription from the ophthalmologist indicating the type of vision problem they have and whether it is their first pair of glasses. However, the aid will be the same if the glasses are being replaced. If the bill is less than 100 euros, the family will pay nothing, and if it is more, they will pay the difference. In the case of contact lenses, the plan includes the liquid and the units necessary for one year.

Sánchez stated that his team is working to have the measure in place by the start of the school year, which is why the Ministry of Health has already begun to draw up the royal decree that will regulate and implement the plan. The aid is expected to be operational by September.

Sánchez said that this is a national measure financed by the state, which means that it will be applied in all regions, so that children's visual health does not depend "on their postcode, their residence or their family's income".

Spain's PM described the measure as yet another step to "shield" the Spanish public health model and combat the visual poverty that hampers the quality of life and the future of many Spanish families and children.

On the urgency of the need for this measure, Sánchez provided two pieces of information. He said that at least 721,000 Spanish children and adolescents need to wear glasses and contact lenses due to vision defects, but cannot afford them, or cannot renew them when it is necessary to change the prescription, because their families cannot afford them. The most recent studies indicate that about a third of Spanish children with vision problems do not have them solved due to their family's lack of resources.

President of the general council of opticians-optometrists Juan Carlos Martínez said that if there were opticians in primary care centres, 75% of referrals of children and adolescents to ophthalmologists in hospitals would be spared, which lengthens waiting lists, causes delays in diagnosis and wastes millions of euros. The vision problem that two out of three of these children have can be corrected simply by wearing glasses or contact lenses, as it is not a defect caused by a disease that requires a specialist doctor.