Ryan NI

Yeah just looking at the sheet now it's $0 for me, $47.04 for me and wife, $48.65 for me & children and $95.82 for me and family...crazt alright!

Jscl

Sometimes there's an option to have a plan with or without orthodontics and the orthodontics plan is considerably more expensive, but still... I've never seen it that much. If everyone in your family is just going to do two checkups and cleanings a year it might not be worth it - however then you have to find a dentist who takes patients without insurance, and not all do.

lansbury

While the first point applies to the plans I have looked at the second one doesn't. Dental insurance I have just been offered, and which is very similar to previous offerings on my health plan, is $30 per month premium and a maximum benefit of $1500 a year. That is an individual policy not family.

I guess it comes down to how many years is dental cost going to outweigh the premium. It is the cap at $1500 which seems to make it ineffective as if you need any real dental work done you are still going to get stuck with a large bill.

MarylandNed

Yep out of pocket costs can still be steep even with dental insurance, But one thing to consider is that the insurance companies have negotiated lower rates with the dentist. If you have no insurance and go to the same dentist, you will almost certainly be charged much, much more than you would have been under the dental insurance plan.

lansbury

Good point.

Bob

If there's no max limit then it's brilliant. Chances are, they'll only be a $1500 limit a person or some such, in which case, this might not be worth it.

For us, it's $60 a month for a family plan, so wasn't worth doing for us until this year as our youngest is now two and has a full set of teeth. So if nothing else, it pays for itself when everyone gets their teeth checked over and cleaned, because down my way it's around $150 for a check up and $125 for a clean.

Bob

When we last had dental, ours was a fiver too.

At the moment for us, it's a flat rate, have it or don't have it, doesn't matter if it's one person or ten.

Michael

I'm not so sure of that and haven't seen that with my dentist. That is true for the medical profession but it is much easier to price compare with dentists so they have to keep their prices competitive. Probably less than half the people have dental insurance and if they don't compete on price, they'll be losing over half of their business.

Of course there will always be a few dentists that will charge significantly more than others claiming to being a superior dentist but generally their profits are eaten up in advertising.

Giantaxe

Not really. It presumably means your employer is subsidizing your coverage but not that or your dependents.

Ryan NI

Well I was only talking about what I would be paying but yes my employer covers me and not my family.

scrubbedexpat099

Which is sort of logical.

MarylandNed

With every dentist I have encountered here, I have paid a lower negotiated fee (for out of pocket costs) as a result of having dental insurance. Insurance companies typically negotiate lower fees for their members whenever they bring a dentist into their network. I'm sure their ability to do so depends on several factors and maybe not every dentist operates that way. However, I'm pretty sure it's very common for dentists to charge higher fees whenever there is no insurance company involved. For insured patients, they have to negotiate fee increases with the insurance company. For uninsured patients, they have more freedom regarding their fee schedule.

Uncle_Bob

Sounds likely. My currently employer issues each employee an annual compensation summary statement which details all my elected benefits it subsidizes for myself and my family. Its actually quite an eye opener. Apart from my annual salary my employer is subsidizing an average of an additional 10-15% of that amount. Health care, 401k match, life insurance, dental etc it all adds up. It was a major factor in my decision not to go self employed a while back.

kodokan

We pay $16.53 every two weeks, so around $35 a month, for a family of 4. For that, we get all check ups, cleanings, x rays, fillings, sealants for free. Crowns are at 20% of cost, which works out about $215 a time. Root canals are 10%, about $240. There's a ton of other things covered: dentures, various surgeries and so on, all at the 10% contribution basis.

My son is in the middle of braces, and our share is around $1500, spread over 2 years.

All these contributions come from our HSA, so are therefore 'lower' than it appears, as they're coming out of pre-tax income.

Can't find anything about annual/ lifetime coverages in the policy doc, so assume it doesn't have any..? This is with Cigna.

Seems a pretty good deal. We definitely get our money's worth on check ups and cleanings alone, my son's braces are now a reasonable expense, and hubby and I are systematically working through our 20+ year old NHS fillings, and having them done a couple a year.