Does Medicaid cover LASIK?
Medicaid does not cover LASIK — it's considered an elective, cosmetic vision-correction procedure, and the covered alternative is eyeglasses (or contacts where the state provides them).
What flips the answer
- Covered when
The eye surgery is for a covered medical condition (e.g., cataract removal, retinal or corneal disease, injury repair) rather than elective refractive correction.
- Not covered when
You want LASIK to reduce dependence on glasses — this is elective/cosmetic and not covered in any state.
LASIK and other refractive surgeries are elective procedures to reduce dependence on glasses. Because they aren't medically necessary — glasses correct the same refractive error — Medicaid treats them as cosmetic and doesn't cover them.
What Medicaid does cover on the vision side is corrective lenses. For members under 21, eyeglasses and eye exams are covered through EPSDT. For adults, vision coverage (exams and glasses) is an optional benefit that varies by state, but even where adult vision is generous, it covers glasses — not laser surgery.
There's no medical-necessity pathway that turns routine LASIK into a covered service. Surgery on the eye for disease or injury (cataracts, retinal repair, trauma) is a separate, covered category and isn't the same thing as refractive LASIK.
That's the general answer. Yours is written in your actual policy.
Drop in your policy or benefits document and get the answer for your exact coverage — with the clause it comes from. Nothing is stored.
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