Does Medicare pay for eye exams and glasses, and what does a vision plan cost?

Medicare.gov says Medicare does not cover routine eye exams. They are sometimes called eye refractions. Medicare does not cover them for glasses or contact lenses. You pay all costs for care Medicare does not cover [1].

Medicare Advantage plans may add benefits Original Medicare does not cover. Some of those are vision benefits. So if you are in an Advantage plan, the answer is in that plan's own papers [1].

The pages quoted here cover routine exams for glasses and contacts, and nothing else. They do not say what Medicare pays when you have an eye disease, so this answer does not either [1].

What it costs. Medicare.gov gives no price for routine eye exams, because it does not cover them [1]. For a published price list, OPM prints what federal workers pay in 2026: VSP Vision Care Standard, self only, is $7.76 a month and the High option is $14.56; Blue Cross Blue Shield FEP Vision Standard, self and family, is $23.14 [2]. Those are federal-worker rates, so read them as a size, not as your price.

Read the «Eye exams (routine)» page at medicare.gov for what Medicare does not pay, then read your plan's Evidence of Coverage for the vision extra. OPM's 2026 FEDVIP vision chart gives published premiums as a size check.