My employer offers health insurance and additional, optional, insurance for dental and vision -- I think it makes even less sense to put those two together in one package.

While it's true that vision is not an optional extra, I can see from the money standpoint why it's an insurance extra. Some people, like me, don't need vision correction, and so don't need insurance that covers glasses, contacts, or (to a lesser extent, because I probably still ought to get one) eye exams.

It's probably because the costs aren't that high. High enough, obviously, but not make-you-file-for-bankruptcy the way a good hospital stay can do!

That's true, but for those of us who have all kinds of entertaining vision problems, eye care can still be surprisingly expensive. (It also was de-listed by the provincial health plan a few years ago, right before my two summers-of-a-dozen-optometry-appointments in a row. Grumpy? Me? No...) What turns out to be an entertaining challenge is documenting where "medicine" ends and "optometry" begins.

Oh, one eye exam a year is covered through my normal insurance, but it's sad and pathetic coverage. That's my complaint.

Technically you are perfectly healthy even if you can't see. I'm not sure how that logic applies to hearing aids, which I believe can be covered medically.

Yeah, that's the thing that bugs me. No, in fact, I'm not perfectly healthy if I can't see, just like I wouldn't be perfectly healthy if I was missing a hand. Defining "healthy" that way is stupid. Grumble.

It's also not contagious, so, not a general health threat.

Yeah. I hate it too. dem glasses and whatnot ain't cheap! And, yes my prescription is painfully out of date (though my vision hasn't changed) and I've not bought new glasses or contacts in far too long. Sigh.