Five months after the announcement of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Council of Ministers has approved the Royal Decree that regulates the new direct aid for the purchase of glasses and lenses to children and adolescents up to 16 years.
The program marks a cap of 100 euros per beneficiary person and covers graduated and contact lenses, although the latter for the moment only for a year. It has a budget of almost 48 million euros between 2025 and 2026, and the forecast is that families can start accessing these subsidies before the end of the year. “Seeing well cannot depend on each family's pocket, as does not happen with vaccines or other treatments to which the citizens of our country have access,” said the Minister of Health, Mónica García, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
How will it be managed? The optics will directly apply the discount on the purchase and then manage the reimbursement for the products dispensed with the General Council of Optics-Optometrists (CGCOO), designated as a “collaborating entity” by the Ministry of Health to manage these aid. This entity will assume the function of coordinating with the establishments and will verify that the conditions are met.
“The purchase of glasses or lenses must be formalized until December 31, 2026 although the payments corresponding to operations carried out in December may be executed during the 2027 year, thus guaranteeing the effective coverage and the accounting closure of the measure,” they point out from the Ministry of Health.
Aside from income
The measure to which on Tuesday was given definitive green light was contemplated the government agreement between PSOE and add: “A specific program of direct aid for the purchase of glasses and slows to children under 18 for families with less resources.” However, finally the bet has been more ambitious and the incorporation of this visual health benefit will be universal, that is, not limited by rent.
“It responds to a need for public health and the will to reduce economic barriers that hinder access to visual help systems in childhood,” they point out from health, which has finally included children and adolescents up to 16 years. In the announcement of May, the aid were limited to minors of that age.
The demand also comes from the Congress of Deputies. The lower house unanimously approved at the beginning of April a proposal of law to guarantee the free glasses for children and adolescents. The initiative arrived in Madrid from Adelante Andalucía prior to unanimous support in the Andalusian Parliament.
Increased vision problems
The vision problems in childhood – bad, farsightedness and astigmatism – are increasingly frequent. Spain is not one of the countries with the most affectation – in Asia, the figures frisa 80% – but it is estimated that 19%of children between five and seven years of age had myopia in 2024. The forecasts for 2030 is that the percentage rises to 30%, according to an estimate conducted by two researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid, Miguel Ángel Sánchez Tena and Cristina Álvarez. Other estimates place that two out of five teenagers need glasses. The forecast, in any case, is that the prevalence continues to increase throughout the world due to lifestyle: screens, sedentary lifestyle and less outdoor activities.
“Numerous studies have found that children from families in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic situation access less frequently to the necessary visual corrections, which perpetuates social and educational inequalities,” recalls health. With help it is a “equity tool” so that “no minor is excluded from the right to adequate vision for economic reasons.”