Vision insurance is a tricky question. Who needs it? How much should you really be insured for? To what extent is it necessary? It can be confusing, and the prospect of losing your vision, in part or in whole, is certainly a scary thing to contemplate, but if you, like most people, rely on your vision to make a living, then vision insurance is certainly something to spend some time thinking about.

To some, it might seem almost silly. Losing your vision? You may as well insure yourself against lightning strikes, right? Well, the fact is that a lightning strike isn’t always as bad as it sounds, you can get hit by lightning and return to work, but for most of us, even a partial loss of vision would seriously impair our ability to do our jobs.

The Reality of Eye Damage

It is because it’s so scary that we like to think it can’t happen to us, that we won’t go blind anymore than we’re going to get in a plane crash or be kidnapped by terrorists, but it remains a real concern nevertheless. A single car wreck, glaucoma, cataracts, cancer, even bad cases of the flu and pneumonia can damage one’s vision. It’s scary to think of just how fragile your eyes really are.

The truth is that anybody who relies heavily on their vision to make a living, and who can afford a good insurance policy on their vision (or get covered through their employer), would be crazy not to get covered.

An Ounce of Prevention

If at all possible, of course, it’s always best to take precautionary measures. If you work in construction or with power tools all day, you can’t afford not to wear your safety glasses. Even doing a small job like hammering some drywall nails, you never know what can happen on a job site. Stray pieces of wood, metal and drywall can splinter out and create serious problems for workers.

The same applies if you work around caustic chemicals. If you work in a factory, a restaurant or anywhere else where you’re handling powerful cleaning agents and other dangerous chemicals, it is of the utmost importance that you take the precautions necessary to protect your eyes. You simply cannot afford to take any chances when it comes to your vision.

Prioritizing Vision Insurance?

While vision insurance is important, it might not be a priority for everybody. It’s generally a good idea to make sure that you have health and life coverage before worrying about something more specific like vision insurance.

However, if it is within your means, it’s not a bad idea to see what you can do about getting your vision covered on some insurance plan or other. You may want to talk to your employer about making vision insurance a part of your company’s benefits package or you may want to see if you can get a vision insurance policy added to your health plan.

How Much Insurance Do You Need?

One of the things to consider when buying vision insurance is that you’re not just paying for, say, a new pair of glasses or a service animal, but rather, all of the lifestyle changes that come with a loss of vision.

This means the loss of income that comes from losing your vision in part or in whole needs to be covered. Even if you only lose partial vision, there’s a good chance that you’re going to need to find a new line of work, which is even more difficult than usual when suffering a disability. Your insurance policy needs to cover this if it happens.

The Bottom Line on Vision Insurance

The bottom line on vision insurance really comes down to this: Everybody needs it, but it might not be a priority if you can’t afford it. In any event, if you can take out a policy on your vision, there’s no reason not to do just that. If you can afford it or you have an employer who might be open to the suggestion, get your eyes insured.