Did you know that most health insurance plans don’t cover all eye care? For things like new glasses or contacts, general eye exams, and corrective eye surgery, you’ll need vision insurance. Fortunately, vision plans are typically very inexpensive, and they cover several preventive services that keep you healthy.

What is preventive care?

Certain types of services help you catch medical conditions before they grow serious and keep you healthy as you get older. This is called preventive care. According to the CDC, eye diseases are common, but many people don’t even know they have them. Preventive eye services can help you detect these problems early on, making it easier to treat them before you lose any vision.

Your eyesight can also reveal a lot about your overall health, which is why preventive care can help you detect conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and even cancer. In fact, early detection of diabetes can prevent or delay disease-related blindness in 90 percent of patients.

What preventive care comes with a vision plan?

Almost all vision insurance plans include the following preventive services:

• Eye wellness exams

• Vision tests

• Glaucoma testing

These preventive services are typically 100 percent covered, up to a specific amount, by your insurance company, which makes it easy and affordable to get the care you need.

Who should get preventive eye care?

Not-so-fun fact: There are currently an estimated 93 million American adults at high risk of losing their vision, but only half of those people have visited an eye doctor in the last year. The truth is, everyone should get an eye exam at least every two years, especially if you’re older than 40. If you have diabetes, you need an exam every year.

And don’t forget: Preventive eye care isn’t just for adults! One in 4 children need vision correction. Getting screenings when they’re young (around ages 3 to 5) can help doctors catch and treat amblyopia — the most common cause of vision loss in children — before it does any damage.

How do I get preventive eye care?

Vision insurance is typically very affordable (as low as $9 per month), and will fully cover your preventive care. There is no Open Enrollment Period for vision insurance, which means you can sign up for a plan at any time. When you use your vision plan for a preventive service, make sure you visit an opthamologist that’s in your insurance company’s network. To do this, just Google “[insurance company] find a doctor” to locate one near you.

Insider tip → While health insurance won’t typically cover preventive eye care for adults, it is legally required to cover vision screening for your children. If you have health insurance for your whole family, be sure to take your little ones in for an exam. That way, you can check for amblyopia or other vision-harming conditions before they get serious.