Totally barmy. Ours will pay for quacks such as chiropractors, naturopaths, osteopaths. BUT THERES NO COVER FOR A NEW PAIR OF SPECS!

Ludicrous, completely and butterfly ludicrous.

I used to be on our salary and benefits committee at work
I voiced similar concerns when I realised that ours would cover shit like that but not my colleagues contraceptive device.

I was most unpopular when our coverage changed from $500 for each quack service to $500 total but did cover stuff like the mirena IUD.

I was extremely proud of myself! Although would have been prouder if I'd managed to cut the coverage completely

And quite right too...especially where the Mirena is for medical reasons not just as contraception.

My new coverage has no specs, but they eyetest is covered.

I'm gonna have to get some of that ~~ist stuff done to me just to get value!

Perhaps get the chiropractor to do the frames and the naturopath to do the lenses.

That's the problem. All the gubbins is in there to make it look like you get something for your money. The review panel at my OH's work were aghast that a whole family including kids had used their entire massage allowance. But good for them, perhaps if covering the stuff that most people don't bother with starts to cost them they will cover the real stuff instead.

Oh, I thought this was about friends with benefits...

Mine is the same - $500 per chiro, nautopath, massage (I use the latter quite a bit though)

For eye test, I got $50 towards mine (the test was $75) and then only $125 towards frames and luckily I just got some cheap glasses through clearly online.

I've mostly found private extended to be a waste, and just duplicates what we get via the province, so I try to generally to refuse it at employers if it costs money.

My wife's last employer offered it at no cost so we had it.

It did cover glasses and vision at slightly better coverage compared to our provincial coverage.

As per usual with insurance of this sort, they covered very little for mental health, but it's the norm, nobody likes to cover mental health needs.

Biggest benefit was massage was covered so wife was able to get a weekly massage.

Ours is the same, we both wear specs