Vision Coverage Do You Need It?
Posted: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
by Alston Balkcom
1800insuranceCT.com
While It is without a doubt important to have healthy eyes, it may or may not be imperative to have eye care insurance. Many shopping for medical insurance overvalue this insurance and over pay.
To know whether you will get your money's worth when you buy optical coverage, it is imperative to know what vision or eye insurance covers and what it doesn't reimburse for. Having knowledge of the limitations of eye care coverage is necessary to determine whether you should pay extra for the coverage.
It is also important to know what it doesn't include. eye or vision coverage does not cover the medical fees associated with trauma to the eye or diseases that impact the eye. Medical insurance will usually cover these health care costs.
Your optical coverage nor your medical insurance is likely to include coverage for laser eye surgery. Surgery to improve vision is usually specifically excluded by health care coverage policies. This is different from surgery to repair your eyes.
The standard medical insurance policy will not have coverage for corrective lenses. Typical health insurance policies will also exclude coverage for the eye exams necessary to get corrective lenses. Corrective lenses can be either prescription contact lenses or prescription standard glasses.
Medical costs associated with trauma to the eye and eye diseases are still paid for as part of the health insurance benefit. A separate eye care coverage rider is not necessary to have eye trauma covered. Many people pay extra for eye care coverage because they think that their health insurance policy will not cover anything associated with vision.
When checking out medical coverage policies that include vision or eye insurance, be sure to see how what is covered and what isn't. Since some insurance policies will cover the exam only, those insurance policies are less valuable than vision plans that will not only cover the examination but will also pay towards glasses.
Another issue to consider is the availability of eye care professionals. Most insurance plans will limit the places you can go to have your eye exam to network providers. You should make sure that there are eye care professionals near you and that you will feel comfortable using those eye care professionals.
It is a waste of money to pay for vision or eye coverage only to find that none of the in network providers are ones you can or want to visit. Often consumers will routinely check to make sure that their doctors are on the provider lists, but will forget to check for dentists and opticians.
Knowing the value of the additional coverage is essential if you are going to make the right choice. If the eye care coverage only includes an annual exam, you should call an eye doctor and ask what a vision exam costs. If the policy also pays something toward prescription glasses you should add that to the cost of the exam. Multiply the cost by the number of family members that will be covered. Then divide that cost by 12 of your policy premiums are being paid monthly. This will allow you to properly compare your cost of having vision or eye insurance with the added price of the coverage.
Eye coverage is often worth the extra costs, but often is not. Frequently those shopping for medical insurance will compare different plans that are otherwise the same and choose the one that has eye care coverage without the properly weighing the costs and benefits. Now you know how to compare policies and make the right decision.
The author, Alston J. Balkcom frequently blogs about the insurance industry. He has recently written about cheap vision insurance. You will find more medical insurance tips as well as instant health insurance rates . You can also quotes for health and vision insurance on his site.
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