Individual vision insurance can provide a variety of benefits. However, very few people actually use it and end up paying hundreds of dollars each year for expensive optical instruments and doctor visits. This often misunderstood insurance policy can be easily bundled with your regular health insurance policy for a small amount, but can yield big benefits.
Individual vision insurance is a special policy designed specifically to take care of the health of the eyes. While a health plan may cover general hospital visits, a vision plan specifically caters to ophthalmologists and optometrists. You must pay a monthly or annual premium for the policy in exchange for benefits.
The people who can benefit most from vision insurance are, of course, those who regularly wear glasses or contact lenses, or who have other eye problems. Of course, even if you have perfect eye health but are interested in getting regular eye checkups, such an insurance policy will also be highly beneficial.
Since the premium attached to a vision insurance policy is usually quite low (around $15 for most policies), you’ll find that it pays for itself annually, even if you rarely see an eye doctor. It’s no secret that regular doctor visits and prescription glasses can put a significant strain on your wallet. A pair of prescription glasses along with quality frames can cost you several hundred dollars. An individual vision insurance policy can reduce these costs by providing coverage for visits to the optometrist.
The prevailing misconception that may prevent people from getting this insurance is that it provides coverage only for annual doctor visits and not unexpected eye health problems. This is largely untrue, however. While the benefits of different policies will vary, most policies have adequate coverage for visits to ophthalmologists, optometrists, and in some cases even eye surgeons. Some specially designed policies can even take care of very expensive procedures like LASIK, cataract surgery, etc. In other words, whatever your requirement, you can get a policy that meets your needs at marginal cost.
