Eyes on Medicare: Ensuring access to timely eye care

Taking action in Optometry Australia's 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.

With the next election widely tipped to result in a minority government, our marginal seats campaign is more important than ever. Targeted advocacy in key electorates can shape national priorities and place eye health firmly on the agenda.

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 Optometry Australia's 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.

With the next election widely tipped to result in a minority government, our marginal seats campaign is more important than ever. Targeted advocacy in key electorates can shape national priorities and place eye health firmly on the agenda.

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 the candidates seeking election in your electorate

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Subject:

Congratulations on being a candidate at the upcoming Federal election.

I am a local optometrist, and I am seeking your commitment to advocate to fix a serious problem that is putting the vision of our community at risk.

Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, the number of Australians under 65 getting initial comprehensive eye examinations fell by nearly 20%  The drop is across all age groups from 0-5 to 55-64 years and is more than 4% higher for women than for men.

As an optometrist, I am seriously concerned about the impact on my patients. Most eye conditions are treatable if they detected on a timely basis, but are often asymptomatic, hence the need for regular comprehensive eye examinations. 
Fifty percent of Australians have one or more long term eye condition with a predicted 39% rise in the number of people with vision loss between 2020 and 2030. Incidence of conditions like childhood myopia, diabetic eye disease, and age related macular degeneration is rising rapidly.

We simply must address the alarming drop in the number of people getting their eyes examined.

Eye examinations are covered by Medicare and more than 90% of optometrists bulk bill.  The problem is that eligibility for Medicare subsidised initial comprehensive eye examinations was reduced in 2014, from once every two years to once every three years. Ever since this change, the numbers of people getting their eyes examined has continued to fall. This has been exacerbated by cost-of-living pressures, with a 6.2% drop in the last financial year alone.

Getting your eyes tested only once every three years is contrary to best practice clinical guidance in Australia and internationally. I am regularly seeing the impact on patients. Some are not diagnosed on a timely basis, with deterioration in a range of conditions putting their sight at risk. Others have an eye examination and are diagnosed with a serious condition that would not otherwise have been found. Most worrying are those people who are not getting their eyes examined at all.

The decision to move from two yearly to three yearly Medicare subsidised initial comprehensive eye examinations must be reversed as a matter of urgency. This penny-pinching budget decision is putting local residents’ sight at risk. People should be being encouraged to get their eyes examined by their local optometrist, not financially disadvantaged for doing so.

As a candidate in an electorate that could be highly relevant to the outcome of the election, your commitment to a return to two yearly Medicare subsidised initial comprehensive eye examinations is vitally important.  As a local optometrist, I am asking for this commitment from you and your fellow candidates which I will, of course, pass onto my patients.

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