More people will be reimbursed after buying prescription eyeglasses from next month onwards as the threshold for health insurance reimbursement will be lowered.
From 1 August, more prescription glasses will be eligible for reimbursement as the glasses strength – determined by the dioptre – eligible for better intervention has been further reduced to 7.00, Public Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke announced on Monday.
"Someone who has poor vision to this extent should not, on top of this, be punished financially. We must ensure that people who have poor vision can wear glasses and also afford them," he said, adding that the threshold will be further lowered next year.
Under certain conditions, such as for people with single, double or triple vision, people using tinted spectacles and for people aged 65 and over, these glasses would already be reimbursed. At the end of 2021, the threshold for reimbursement was lowered to 7.75 dioptres for the 18-65 age group. This threshold will now be further reduced to 7.00.
For children and young people under 18 and elderly people over 65, the threshold stands at 6.75. Only authorised opticians can prescribe and dispense spectacle lenses.
Reimbursement for people without a preferential scheme with an approved optician and for people benefiting from a preferential scheme with an optician, whether approved or not, is 100%. For people without a preferential scheme with an optician not covered by the agreement, reimbursement is 75%.
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According to calculations by the Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI/RIZIV), the latest expansion will result in some 10,000 more people being reimbursed for glasses on an annual basis, while the additional investment will amount to €3.3 million a year.
This change is due, in part, to the additional €195 million provided within the health insurance budget for new investments in the Belgian healthcare system, which was decided upon in October 2022.
