Government Should Halt Looming Cuts to Eye Exams and Vision Care

Government Should Halt Looming Cuts to Eye Exams and Vision Care

EDMONTON — Coming out of the holidays, the government quietly announced cuts to eye care coverage for Albertans. These changes include the delisting of partial eye exams for children and seniors, a cut to fees paid to optometrists, and new restrictions on billing, all set to take effect February 1.

“In the last election, Danielle Smith committed to public Medicare, repeatedly promising her government would not delist any future medical procedures from public funding if she were re-elected. Yet not even two years later, her government is breaking that promise by delisting eye care services for children and seniors,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “Albertans are struggling with affordability right now, but instead of expanding public coverage this government is introducing more out of pocket fees for care. It’s completely unacceptable. These changes will be harmful to the eye health of Albertans and we call on the government to stop this new policy before it takes effect on February 1.”

Changes to eye care coverage were announced without any consultation with Albertans or the optometrists who provide the care. The Alberta Association of Optometrists have warned that: “these changes could exacerbate inequities in care, especially for vulnerable populations and rural residents. The delisting of partial eye exams for children could lead to missed vision changes, potentially impacting their ability to succeed in school and navigate everyday life. Reductions in retinal imaging services could delay diagnoses and treatment for conditions like age-related macular degeneration, which, if not caught early, can lead to irreversible vision loss.”

“The fact the government decided to announce this decision without any consultation or notice, and to do so quietly via a memo the day after the holiday break, shows that they are hoping to get away with this without Albertans noticing the cuts they are making,” said Gallaway. “But the fact remains, eye care is health care. Any cuts or new barriers to accessing eye exams or other preventative care will put the health of Albertans at risk, and will ultimately cost our health care system more over the long term.”

Friends of Medicare has written to the Minister of Health with our concerns and is encouraging all Albertans to write to the Minister and their local MLAs to request these changes not be implemented.

“If the Premier is willing to break her promise to not delist medical procedures, Albertans should be very concerned about what else may be on the chopping block. Albertans should never have to pay out of pocket for medically necessary health care. The Premier needs to keep her election promise by putting a halt to these changes,” concluded Gallaway.

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