Eyes on Medicare: Ensuring access to timely eye care

Taking action in the Eyes on Medicare campaign is crucial to improving eye health access and securing a sustainable future for optometry.

By advocating for the reinstatement of two-yearly Medicare-funded eye exams for Australians under-65, we enhance early detection, prevent vision loss, and address unmet community needs. Increased access ensures quality care while strengthening the profession’s role in primary healthcare.

Your support amplifies our collective voice, urging policymakers to prioritise eye health. Together, we can drive meaningful change and improve outcomes for all Australians.

Taking action in the Eyes on Medicare campaign is crucial to improving eye health access and securing a sustainable future for optometry.

By advocating for the reinstatement of two-yearly Medicare-funded eye exams for Australians under-65, we enhance early detection, prevent vision loss, and address unmet community needs. Increased access ensures quality care while strengthening the profession’s role in primary healthcare.

Your support amplifies our collective voice, urging policymakers to prioritise eye health. Together, we can drive meaningful change and improve outcomes for all Australians.

Email your local federal representatives

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Subject:

I am an optometrist in your electorate. You may be aware that optometrists around Australia are campaigning locally to fix a problem that is putting at risk the eye health of your constituents.

Did you know that between 2017-18 and 2023-24 the number of Australians under 65 getting initial comprehensive eye examinations fell by nearly 20%?

This drop is occurring in all States and Territories and in all age cohorts from 0-5 to 55-64 years. It is more than 4% higher for women than for men.  Alarmingly, per capita rates of initial comprehensive eye examinations are lower now than they were during COVID.

This is a recipe for disaster for my patients. Most eye conditions are treatable if detected on a timely basis, but they are often asymptomatic, emphasising the importance of regular comprehensive eye examinations. We seem to be sleepwalking into an eye health epidemic – with 13 million Australians having one or more long term eye conditions and a predicted 39% increase in the number of people with vision loss between 2020 and 2030.

You will be aware that initial comprehensive eye examinations are covered by Medicare, and optometrists have the highest bulkbilling rates of any health profession. So how did we get here?

Cost of living is one reason. There was a 6.2% drop in the per capita number of initial comprehensive eye examinations in the financial year to June 2024.
But there is another reason, which must be fixed as a matter of urgency.  In the 2014 Federal Budget, a decision was made to reduce access to Medicare subsidised initial comprehensive eye examinations for under 65s from once every two years to once every three years.
 
Unsurprisingly, annual rates of initial comprehensive eye examinations for under 65s have continued to drop in the decade since this change was implemented. 
It was a Coalition budget decision, without a clear evidence base, but the Albanese Government has done nothing to fix it. Despite the rhetoric from both sides of politics about Medicare, both of them seem blind to these damaging Medicare cuts to eye health.

In the weeks leading up to the Federal election, I am calling on you to secure a commitment that this very serious issue will be addressed as a majority of priority after the election.  I would appreciate the opportunity to meet to tell you first-hand how important this is to the health of your constituents.

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