As part of the extension of the third-party payment system, a new system was launched in 2012 and is gradually being introduced nationwide to enable a category of insured persons with medical and income-related conditions to benefit from the coverage of the cost of eyeglasses without advance payments. 

The initiative targets school and pre-school aged children of insured persons whose income does not exceed a certain level (DZD 40,000), entitling them to free prescription lenses if they suffer from myopia, refractive errors or strabismus. The underlying purpose is to prevent school dropouts that could arise from this type of problem.

This system covers not only lenses and frames prescribed by an ophthalmologist, but also the replacement of lenses and frames that takes into account, in particular, of changes due to the child’s development and changes in his or her condition.