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Financial cost in developing countries

In the developing world, cost of treatment has been an acute problem, Dr. Congdon said. He is a professor at the School of Public Health, Chinese University, Hong Kong, and has worked extensively in rural China through the Joint Shantou International Eye Center, Shantou, China. With nearly 70% of China’s population living in rural areas, health care access in those regions is vital to glaucoma diagnosis and treatment.

Beginning in 1978 in China, at the time of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, the Chinese government withdrew its support for health care, and the old rural insurance system, the Cooperative Medical System, collapsed as a result, according to Dr. Congdon. Health care became inaccessible and unaffordable to most rural residents; the gaps between rural and urban citizens in blindness rates, life expectancy and infant mortality grew as a result.

The situation has improved in recent years, since the New Cooperative Medical System was established in China, bringing affordable care to more than 95% of rural residents, he said. Patients pay the equivalent of $3 a year to have 40% to 70% of their health care covered by the government.

But there is still a lack of physician training and skill in rural areas that needs to be addressed, he noted.