Vision Service Program

In 2009 Vision Insurance is considered one of the luxury health benefits. With companies looking to save on their employee health insurance costs, dental and vision coverage is usually the first employee benefit to be eliminated.

Having vision insurance or some type of vision benefits program for your family is important,  especially if  several family members wear glasses or contact lenses. Prescription glasses and contacts can be expensive and if there is a way to reduce vision care costs you would want  to know about it.

While most health insurance companies prefer to sell health insurance to employee groups, there are companies that do sell health and vision insurance online to individuals and families.

In preparation for writing this article I reviewed the summary of benefits on a vision insurance plan with a prominent provider of vision insurance. I was rather shocked at what I found out.

For a family of three in Washington State, the vision insurance plan would cost $444.95 annually. For a couple the price would be $324.95 and for an individual the cost is  $169.95. There were no monthly payment options. Obviously in the Insurance Industry they must collect the cash first before they pay out on any benefits.

So what benefits would someone get if they enrolled on that companies vision insurance plan.  I did a little more research and compared the benefits of vision insurance versus a vision discount program, like AmeriPlan®. Here is what I found out.

Reference: https://vsp.careington.com/PreEnrollmentFlier.pdf

After years of being told that video games are bad for your health and especially your eyes, a new study has proved that in fact playing some games may actually help improve your vision, and could even prevent you from needing glasses in the future. The study, conducted by the University of Rochester, demonstrates that regularly playing certain games improves a person’s contrast sensitivity function, or their ability to distinguish easily between different shades of grey. But can that really mean the game has actually improved your eyesight?

Shades of grey might not sound particularly ground-breaking, but contrast sensitivity is one of the most easily damaged functions of the human eye. People who suffer from low contrast sensitivity find it harder to see at night or to pick out small details like spots on clothing, and often the only way to treat the problem is with increasing strength prescription glasses or eye surgery. It’s now believed that computer games could be used to train the eyes to develop these skills, and that the same method could even be used to treat people who suffer from Amblyopia or ‘lazy eye’, a condition that affects the brain’s ability to correctly register signals from one eye.

But it’s not all video games that are thought to have this effect. The study compared two different types of computer games by testing young adults who did not usually play games both before and after a period of playing them regularly. The results suggested that subjects who played first-person shooter or action games such as Call of Duty showed a 43 per cent improvement on average, whereas those who played non-action games like The Sims 2 showed hardly any.

So if gaming could help us avoid eye problems should we all be rushing out to buy an XBOX with as many action games as we can find to ensure that our designer sunglasses will remain our only visual aids far into our future? Well, unfortunately no. For a start the study stresses that not all action games will work, in other words, the majority of them probably won’t. Not to mention the fact that although these games may help develop some areas of your eyesight, it’s still not advisable to be sitting in front of a screen for long periods of time, or to allow gaming to replace other activities necessary to staying fit and healthy. In theory it’s a nice idea, but it’s important to remember that it’s just as possible that video games could well be harmful in other ways.

So many of us these days have vision problems are need to wear glasses or corrective lenses. A recent study showed that as much as 50 per cent of the US population is short sighted. I’m sure I certainly see a lot more children wearing glasses at school nowadays than there were when I was growing up. Because of all of this it is more and more important to look after your eyes and make sure your lifestyle isn’t making your vision worse. So I thought I should share my top 5 tips to keep your eyes healthy:

Get your eyesight checked regularly.

It is advisable to schedule an appointment with your optician at least once every year as some vision problems can often go unnoticed until it is too late. Getting regular eye tests can prevent the need for costly corrective treatments in the future so make sure you always follow your optician’s advice – if they say you need prescription glasses, start wearing them straight away.

If you need glasses, always make sure you wear them!

It doesn’t matter if you think they look good or not, if your optician has said you should be wearing glasses then you need them. Not wearing them can damage your eyes further and will usually only lead to you needing an even stronger prescription later. If you don’t like the way they look then shop around, there are hundreds of different frames available and you’re sure to be able to find something that will suit you.

Eating a healthy diet could help your eyes

Research has shown that certain vitamins and nutrients are beneficial to your eyesight, so making sure that your diet contains plenty of vitamins A, C and E, folic acid, selenium and zinc could help prevent future vision problems. If your glasses prescription is very low (-0.25) it’s possible that your sight could actually be corrected by switching to a diet rich in these nutrients.

Protect your eyes in summer

It sounds really obvious to say that UV rays can cause severe damage to your eyes, yet hundreds of people still allow this to happen to them every year. Sunglasses are an absolute must when going out in the sun, whether you have problems with your eyesight or not. With an endless range of designer sunglasses on the market, it’s easy to find a pair that you like and that will give you the all-important protection you need.

Give your eyes regular breaks!

If you spend a lot of time at your computer throughout the day, it’s important to give your eyes regular breaks. Just closing your eyes or focusing on a distant object for 10 seconds once an hour can make a huge difference and helps to prevent headaches and vision problems associated with prolonged use of a screen. Don’t forget it’s not just work that causes these problems, the same applies to watching TV and playing video games too!