Like health insurance, vision insurance can aid with the cost of examinations, treatments, prescriptions, surgical procedures, and equipment. Some of the things most commonly covered by vision insurance plans include:
Eye exams. This preventive care measure is generally performed once a year and involves a series of tests to gauge the health of your eyes across several different parameters. The things tested for during an eye exam can include the sharpness of your vision, color blindness, how your eyes work together as a unit, a presence of glaucoma, your range of peripheral vision, and more. Eye exams can be instrumental in providing an early detection of eye disease, any developing vision problems, or a need for corrective lenses.
Eyewear. Glasses (frames and lenses alike) and contact lenses can be expensive but are often at least partially covered by vision insurance. Some vision insurance plans may limit coverage to eyewear purchased through your optometrist or a network-approved vision center. Sometimes, even prescription sunglasses may be covered.
Lens coatings and enhancements. Some vision insurance plans can help with the cost of a lens coating. Lenses can be coated with substances to decrease scratching, fog and moisture, reflections, and exposure to ultraviolet rays.
Surgery. Surgeries that are deemed medically necessary, such as a procedure to treat an eye injury, infection, or disease, will often be covered by a health insurance plan. But corrective surgery, such as LASIK, is generally not covered by health insurance because it is deemed by many insurance providers to be an elective or “cosmetic” surgery. However, there are some vision insurance plans and discount programs that will partially cover such elective procedures.

Many people avoid the dentist simply because they don’t like going. Others stay away because they don’t enjoy the cost. In fact, some 108 million Americans do not have dental insurance, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But the ones that do will incur many of the same out-of-pocket expenses as regular health insurance, including premiums, deductibles, and copayments or coinsurance.
While this may seem like a burden, it can pale in comparison to the cost of some dental care services without insurance.
Listed below are some average shelf prices for common dental services.
1. Exams (including x-rays and cleaning) = $288
2. Fillings (single, silver-amalgam filling) = $50 to $150
3. Tooth extractions (non-surgical, gum-erupted) = $75 to $300
4. Crowns (single resin) = $328
5. Root canals (single, exposed) = $120

Dental insurance. Just like the Affordable Care Act, federal Medicaid guidelines only require dental benefits be made available to children. Some states have their own dental requirements for adults under Medicaid, while others do not offer dental insurance to adults at all.
Vision insurance. Medicaid offers coverage of eye exams, frames, and lenses to children under 21, but it’s up to each individual state to determine how much—and how often—the coverage is offered.
Many state Medicaid programs offer similar coverage for adults and some states even provide coverage of glaucoma testing and treatment and even cataract surgery.
Original Medicare (Part A and Part B) typically does not provide vision or dental benefits but many Medicare Advantage plans do.