Costs of vision impairment: present and future issues

There is no standard method for measuring costs of vision impairment. Examples are given of global estimates and from two industrialized countries, Australia and the USA. The comparisons between these countries illustrate how the differences in healthcare systems influence the contribution of direct and indirect costs to the total. Modeling of costs and outcomes (cost-effectiveness analysis) has illustrated the extraordinary benefit of programs to prevent vision loss and blindness. These data need to be used in advocacy for the funding of national Vision 2020: the Right to Sight programs.