Frugal Financiers See No Benefit in Vision Insurance

Medical and dental coverage meet the standards for ?real? insurance; in the event of serious illness, accident, or dental problem, they protect you against catastrophic loss and assure the quality of your care. Moreover, if you develop serious or chronic problems with your eyes, your medical insurance will cover costs of treatment, rehabilitation, and medication. Vision coverage, on the other hand, does not really protect you; instead, it simply guarantees discounts on glasses and contact lenses. If you subscribe to a vision plan, you generally pay more in annual premiums than you would pay for regular eye exams and new glasses at non-plan providers.

Do-it-yourself visioncare

For an individual, annual ?membership? in the nation?s most popular visioncare plan costs slightly more than $180. For the same $180, you can have your eyes checked, buy stylish frames, and fill your prescription at a discount retailer, going home with approximately $75 left-over. Consumer advocates report little difference in time-of-delivery, quality of workmanship, or quality of customer care. Follow four cardinal principles of do-it-yourself eyecare and see great savings.

See an ophthalmologist for eye exams.

Although you know you are bullet-proof, Teflon-covered, and generally indestructible, nevertheless your primary care physician insists on annual physical exams, which include tests of your vision and hearing. If your physician sees symptoms of vision problems, she naturally will refer you to an ophthalmologist for more comprehensive evaluation. Even if your primary care physician assures you are seeing and hearing just fine, you may want to schedule an annual eye exam anyway. People over 40 typically develop ?presbyopia,? meaning they have difficulty focusing on objects within their arms? reach, also meaning they need bifocals. You can fake it, getting by with reading glasses for a while. Eventually, though, you must see the truth and get fitted for glasses that preserve your distance vision and make close-ups clearer. You can get bifocals without the telltale lines.

Shop around for frames.

Shopping the selections at an optometrist?s office or the mall retailers, you easily can find designer frames in fashion-forward colors and styles; naturally, your upscale selections come fully equipped with designer price-tags. If you have purchased vision coverage, you bring your high-end choices within reach, but you still pay a hefty deductible for both frames and lenses. If, on the other hand, you shop the big discount stores, you find high-fashion knock-offs at real-world prices, and you pay fair prices for your prescription. You also can find spectacular discounts when you shop for frames online. Several sites offer big-name frames at tiny prices.

Shop around for prescription lenses.

When you bring your own frames, you enjoy the privilege of shopping around for the lowest-priced, most-reliable optometrist to prepare and install your lenses. Your ophthalmologist may recommend trustworthy optometrists, or you may consult Angie?s List and other electronic bulletin boards for your neighbors? recommendations. Compare and contrast not only according to price but also according to warranties and promotional considerations.

Sunglasses are not a luxury.

The biggest and best service providers routinely offer buy-one, get-one specials. Take advantage of them. In the same way you never would go out in summer sun without your SPF40, you ought not venture into the UVs without proper protection. Once upon a time, sunglasses may have been the exclusive province of Hollywood starlets and bad-boy bikers. Now, they are essential personal protective equipment not only for proper eyecare but also for driving and working safety.

Instead of wasting money on vision insurance, redirect your premium dollars to improving your other coverage. Especially consider upgrading your dental insurance, because experts say most baby-boomers and young families do not have enough coverage to pay the costs of genuinely effective dental care, and they end-up paying more for corrective procedures than they would have paid for proper preventive care.

Image Credit: CC By 2.0/schrierc ? ? ?

Sara Roberts has a background in health and technical writing, and is a content contributor for JustEyewear.com.

Copyright ? 2012. Used with permission.

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