An accommodating intraocular lens (32) including an optic portion (34) having an outer peripheral edge (36) and two, three or four balanced haptic elements (40) for use to achieve multifocal refractive correction. Each haptic element (40) is formed to have less resistance to bending in a plane generally parallel to an eye's optical axis (OA-OA) than in a plane generally perpendicular to the eye's optical axis (OA-OA). The intraocular lens (32) is designed with specific flexibility characteristics so as to exhibit greater than approximately 1.0 mm axial displacement of the optic portion (34) along the eye's optical axis (OA-OA) under a compression force suitable to effect a 1.0 mm in diameter compression of the intraocular lens (32).
