Cataract surgery rates on the rise

The cataract surgery rate per 1 million people now exceeds 2,000 in China, according to the National Health Commission. The rate was 800 per million in 2010 and 370 in 2000. In 2009, the government launched the Regaining Eyesight Program for a Million Impoverished Cataract Patients and had subsidized surgery for more than 1.75 million cataract patients by the end of 2013. In March, the country launched a national program to treat cataracts for impoverished citizens, aiming to provide free cataract surgery for all Chinese who cannot afford the treatment by 2020.