Dental Discount Plans vs Dental Insurance Plans
Article Source: HealthSnare.com
The main features of dental discount plans are that they do not have high monthly premiums, deductibles, or annual maximums.
Typical dental insurance premiums can be as much as 50 dollars per month for individuals and more than 100 dollars per month for family plans. In comparison, dental discount programs start at less than 10 dollars per month for individuals and less than 20 dollars per month for families.
Dental insurance premiums also depend on the deductible that you are must pay before the insurance starts to cover the cost of dental care. This may be anywhere from 50 dollars to more than 100 dollars per person annually. When making comparisons it is therefore important to consider the cost of the deductible as a significant part of the overall costs that are associated with dental insurance.
Dental discount programs are a bit like buying clubs that require a membership fee. Membership then qualifies you to pay discounted rates at participating dentists.
Dental insurance often limits the amount of reimbursement each year, typically to around 1500 dollars or less per year. This means that any costs above that amount are your responsibility.
Discount programs, on the other hand, do not have annual maximums. Members are allowed to use their discount membership cards as much as they want to. This means that there is no limit to the amount of money that you can save with a dental discount plan.
The red tape that is associated with dental insurance can be time-consuming and tedious because of all the paperwork. Insurance companies also have the bad habit of refusing to cover certain procedures or to delay reimbursement for long periods.
Dental discount memberships are designed to be straightforward and save time as well as money.
One final consideration is that dental insurance companies typically exclude treatment on pre-existing conditions, orthodontics, and teeth whitening and require waiting periods of up to 18 months before paying for any major dental procedures. Dental discount plans are free of all of these limitations.
Although exact price comparisons will vary from one discount program or insurance policy to another, here are some realistic estimates of dental costs between insurance and a good discount program. Assume a typical family premium of 1200 dollars per year, with a deductible of around 200 dollars. Simple dental work for a family of four (exams, cleanings, root canal and maybe an extraction) can easily add up to a dentist's bill of another 1200 dollars. After paying the deductible, the total out of pocket cost for the year would then be 1400 dollars (premiums plus deductible).
The same treatment would be discounted as much as 50 percent in a discount membership program. The total cost would therefore be the membership fee (estimated at 200 dollars for the year) and the dentist's bill (average of about 600 dollars instead of 1200 dollars), or about 800 dollars. All of this amount is paid by the card member.
This is just one simple example for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, it shows why more Americans each year are opting for using dental discount cards instead of insurance.
On a personal note, this has also become the strategy that my wife and I have been using since we went into private business more than 3 years ago. It became the most cost-effective approach for covering our dental needs once we no longer had access to insurance benefits as employees.
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Dr. Dennis Clark
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 Time: 9:14 AM
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