Trends, challenges and answers in the public financing of ophthalmology from 2008 to the present

Abstract

Ophthalmic care is not one of the top-priority health care services (there is not in the mortality statistics), yet it plays a big role in almost everyone's quality of life over time, as old age approaches. A group of researchers from Central and Eastern European universities applied for a small amount of support in the framework of the Visegrad Fund (V4) 2010-2023. A comparative analysis was carried out in the field of ophthalmic care by systematically comparing the public financing techniques and trends of the Visegrád countries. The analysis covered 6 ophthalmic or treatments: cataract surgeries, glaucoma treatments, Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) treatment (with intravitreal injections), vitrectomy (PPV), and cornea transplantation (KP). One of the main goals of the lessons was to provide appropriate lessons and good practices to Ukrainian experts for funding professionals working on a similar funding and supply development program. The purpose of this study is to show what significant trends and challenges we have uncovered in the Visegrad countries within the project in the field of ohthalmic care, and based on this, what health policy and health insurance financing tasks can be formulated for the decision-makers in Hungary for the coming years. In the past decade, the number of key ophthalmic services and surgeries has undergone a significant development, one of the main areas of which was cataract surgery, including same-day surgies, and the number of performed surgeries has increased by 80-120% per country.