The Health and Social Security Act 1984 and the price of spectacles among corporate practices in the United Kingdom (1980-2007): A review: Invited Review

Abstract

The Health and Social Security Act 1984 deregulated certain aspects of optometry in the United Kingdom, including advertising and the supply of spectacles, in the hope that greater competition would reduce spectacle prices. The effects of this legislation are tested by plotting the mean prices of private spectacles purchased from corporate optometric practices, from 1980 to 2007. Historical evidence is used to gauge the effect on prices of other factors such as National Health Service (NHS) payments, sight test fees and pressure exerted by consumer organisations. The high prices in 1980 reduced markedly throughout the rest of the 1980s, remained low for most of the 1990s and rose between 1999 and 2003, before falling. Changes in price were associated with changes to the system of NHS payments and variations in private sight test fees, but prices have generally been lower since the deregulation of dispensing than they were before. Although the price of private spectacles remains heavily influenced by other factors, the deregulation of opticians' services has benefited the public by maintaining lower prices, as intended by proponents of the legislation. © 2010 The College of Optometrists.