Any State or municipal board, commission, department, institution, agency or bureau including public schools, expending public money for any purpose involving eye care which is within the scope of the practice of optometry shall not deny the recipients or beneficiaries the freedom to choose an optometrist or a physician and shall make the same reimbursement whether the service is provided by an optometrist or a physician: Provided, That whenever programs, policies, plans or contracts which pay on the basis of usual, customary and reasonable charges or on some similar basis are used, only the method of determining the amount of reimbursement shall be the same.