I need dental insurance

January 25, 2007 2:34 PM

Is there a Dental Insurance Plan out there that will allow me to cover my family?

My employer offers no dental coverage. I own a business that my wife runs, but she is not an employee. Most self-employed plans I have found (like at Costco) require at least 2 employees. I am willing to pay, but everything I have found semms more like a plan that reduces what you pay for dental work. I want a real insurance plan. Is there anything out there?

posted by Chuck Cheeze to health & fitness (7 comments total)

Is it just you and your wife? Are you in reasonably good shape dentally? Meaning you don't have tons of existing fillings and you are doing well at home hygiene? Do you go to the dentist for regular 6 month checkups? Would you be able to pay one hundred dollars a month for "Coverage?"

Because there really isn't a good individual plan out there that will provide benefits at a reasonable premium. So if you are disiplined you can pay yourself $50-$100 a month and set aside for these costs or:

If you can set up pretax dollars and plan out what you estimate dental costs to be, and just know that you may get dinged from time to time for a filling...(which if you can use pretax income to pay, try to plan the treatment after the new year when you can declare some extra cash)

Who knows, in another year, your employer might provide coverage, you may get another job that has benefits. But as a general rule, individual plans are a rip-off. But I'd be happy to learn I'm wrong, it's been a while since we've looked into it.
posted by Jazz Hands at 2:46 PM on January 25, 2007

Thanks for the info. Its the 2 of us and a 1 year old. My teeth are awesome and wife's are awesome except that root canal she now needs. Frankly- I'd change employers just for benefits if there were many to choose from here in my area of expertise. It just seems stupid that in this day, a successful company doesn't provide benefits. But thats another story.
posted by Chuck Cheeze at 2:50 PM on January 25, 2007

One of the issues with individual plans is that there isn't a group pool to mitigate the "risk" for the insurance company. The individual plans tend to come with higher premiums, more restrictions and waiting periods, higher co-pays and deductibles.

This is to discourage someone from signing up, using up the benefit maximum and then dropping the plan. So sometimes you can only get cleanings/x-rays for the first year.

Just know what you are paying for.
posted by Jazz Hands at 2:54 PM on January 25, 2007

If your wife needs a root canal now, insurance probably won't help. My experience has been that when you sign up for dental insurance there's a 6-month waiting period for fillings and 1-year for major work.

So even if you sign up right now you might have to wait a year before insurance would pay for a root canal.

You'll also want to be aware of coverage levels. My Delta Premiere plan pays 80% of the root canal and 50% of the ensuing crown. There are also yearly maximums, which can easily be eaten up (so to speak) by a root canal, leaving little to no coverage for ensuing problems.
posted by santry at 6:03 PM on January 25, 2007

I'm on an individual dental plan. It's more of a payment plan/discount program than actual "insurance". I pay premiums over the course of the year, and the amounts the plan pays for end up being slightly more than that, so I come out a little ahead. A few minor things, like basic cleanings and I think exams, are covered 100%.

There was a six-month waiting period at the beginning. There are limits to the kinds of restorative treatments they'll pay for, for example, they'll only pay for one bridge every five years.

This is just for me, there's no-one else on my policy.
posted by gimonca at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2007

I don't mean that my wife wants her root canal paid for - its ust underscoring that fact that we have crappy benefits.
posted by Chuck Cheeze at 8:59 PM on January 25, 2007

Full benefit individual and small group plans don't make much sense for insurers as dental costs tend to be predictable and planned. It is possible to find individual plans which cover major services with no waiting period, but they tend to be very expensive. Instead of bothering with the hassle of an individual plan, just budget your expenses and put that money into your employer-offered FSA, so you can use pre-tax dollars. If your employer doesn't have an FSA available for you, you should be able to convince them to set one up. It's just a plan document and some pretty simple admin.
posted by MarkAnd at 8:03 AM on January 26, 2007