Washington, DC - Did you know that 80 percent of children who fail a vision screening don't get the follow-up care they need? A lot of children don't have health insurance, and those who do often lack vision and eye care coverage. Twenty-four percent of parents whose child didn’t receive an eye exam following a screening that showed a problem said they failed to follow up because they couldn’t afford it. Only thirty states require vision screenings for children, and only two of those guarantee a follow-up exam if a problem is discovered.

The risk to children who don’t get the care they need isn’t simply that they won't be able to see the blackboard clearly in the classroom. Uncorrected ambylopia (lazy eye) is the number one cause of vision loss in young Americans, and strabismus (misaligned eyes) can also cause irreversible damage to vision, including blindness, if it is not detected and treated at an early age. As many as seven percent of all children suffer from one of these two conditions, and there are many other common eye problems, such as ptosis (droopy eyelids), glaucoma, cataracts, and scratched corneas that can cause permanent damage to young eyes. The good news is many of these conditions are treatable if caught in time.

Under the Vision Care for Kids Act of 2007 (H.R. 507) that I introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, the federal government would provide grants to strengthen states’ efforts to provide comprehensive eye exams for children who have been identified through vision screenings as having a potential vision disorder. The Vision Care for Kids plan would invest scarce health care dollars in the wisest manner possible; it focuses on uninsured kids under the age of nine in order to stop problems before they become serious and seriously expensive.

This bill is a model of effective bipartisan cooperation. It is designed to garner support regardless of political considerations so it can move expeditiously through the legislative process and make a real difference in the lives of America’s children. It is the second major piece of legislation to emerge from the bipartisan Congressional Vision Caucus that I helped create along with Reps. David Price (D-NC) , Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), and Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio). Republican Congressman Vito Fossella (NY) has led his party in supporting the bill.

Many health care organizations representing pediatric eye and vision health interests have endorsed The Vision Care for Kids Act, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Optometric Association, the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and the Vision Council of America and Prevent Blindness America. Their valuable support testifies to the need for legislation like this to fill a dangerous gap in our children’s health care.

The House passed the Vision Care for Kids Act on October 15, but the U.S. Senate and the president must approve it before it can become law. Senators Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) have introduced a Senate version of our bill that has already garnered eight co-sponsors. I am hopeful the Senate will clear this bill without delay and the president will sign it quickly so that children can get the vision care they need for a bright future.