Macular degeneration is an eye disease in which light-sensing cells stop functioning with the result of vision impairment or blindness. It is a leading cause of blindness among people over 65, and the number of cases, along with untreated diabetes, is rising as the senior population grows.

A recent study commissioned by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Lighthouse International looked at the cost and benefits of Medicare coverage for vision rehabilitation services of those afflicted with macular degeneration and similar vision problems. They wanted to know what it would cost to provide the physical training and home-management skills and reduce the approximately $26 billion spent annually for injuries related to vision impairment such as falls, broken bones and burns and long-term care. Medicare covers these injuries and care; the therapies that may help prevent them are not.

For less than $10 million over five years, according to the study by the Lewin Group, 29,000 Medicare beneficiaries could be expected to receive vision-rehabilitation services. The study doesn’t offer an estimate on what the savings would result, but simply reducing the number of falls and related hip fractures while increasing independence for seniors would result savings that dwarf the investment in Medicare.

That is, of course, just the money end. Avoiding needless physical suffering and confinement while producing net savings for Medicare makes the proposal, in the form of S. 1967 in the Senate, especially important. Sen. Susan Collins was an early co-sponsor of the bill, which is now before the Senate Finance Committee, where Sen. Olympia Snowe, who has yet to decide on the bill, is still hopeful of getting a Medicare prescription-drug benefit by the end of the session.

The bill, which like a lot of valuable Medicare proposals is stuck behind the tardy spending bills in Congress, would provide coverage for vision rehabilitation services to older Americans who suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other chronic eye conditions. It would, however, allow the United States merely to stop falling as far behind in addressing this problem, according to an advocacy coalition, the AMD Alliance International.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, is the primary sponsor of the bill, called Medicare Vision Rehabilitation Services Act, which has bipartisan support but very little time. Worse, a House version is not moving any better than the Senate’s. But if gridlock does not overwhelm Congress in its closing days, the measure still could pass. With its benefits of improving the quality of life for seniors and its cost savings to Medicare, Congress has strong reasons to make sure that it does.