ACA Dental Insurance?

[mountainsoft]

We are switching to an ACA health plan now, and I briefly looked at the dental plans offered.

A few had premiums of $100 or more, but had a maximum payout of $1000. Why would anyone pay $1200 a year for $1000 of coverage? That makes no sense to me. What am I missing?

 

[Aerides]

What am I missing?

Nothing. They are much like a lot of employer plans now, but with bigger premiums, and no subsidies.

But like insurance, you pay group rates, so your actual price for services may be less.

Instead, we have a membership discount plan with our dentist. We pay an annual fee, includes cleanings/exam, and then we pay half on the big stuff when needed.

 

[COcheesehead]

I totaled what we normally spend on dental care in a year and it was less than the premium. Easy pass.

 

[bobandsherry]

We have a dental plan found on this site. Savings on just our regular 6 month checkups more than cover the annual cost. And negotiated rates on other procedures save us some $$.

https://www.dentalplans.com/

 

[MichaelB]

We are switching to an ACA health plan now, and I briefly looked at the dental plans offered.

A few had premiums of $100 or more, but had a maximum payout of $1000. Why would anyone pay $1200 a year for $1000 of coverage? That makes no sense to me. What am I missing?

There is no “ACA dental insurance”. There is just regular dental insurance, which you already have discovered to have limited coverage.

It may still be a reasonable deal. The insurance has payout and coverage limits but it may also get you lower prices for many of the services you need.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Suggest you talk to your dentist and see what they offer for uninsured patients that will be paying cash. My dentist offered me $180 for 2 cleanings and checkups per year and then a discount off all other services. I did not take advantage of it at the time due to Covid restrictions.

 

[5Miler]

Suggest you talk to your dentist and see what they offer for uninsured patients that will be paying cash. My dentist offered me $180 for 2 cleanings and checkups per year and then a discount off all other services. I did not take advantage of it at the time due to Covid restrictions.

DGF uses a similar discount plan with our dentist and has for many years now.

I have dental insurance through the Veteran's Administration which costs me $52 a month for $3500 per year coverage. I elected the higher of two available coverage tiers. Came in real handy with my implant this past year. Between the amount covered by insurance and the contracted rate I was actually charged, it dropped the original estimated amount from $8200 to my actual payment of $2900.

First time I had an implant and the original quote was mind boggling.

 

[mountainsoft]

Instead, we have a membership discount plan with our dentist. We pay an annual fee, includes cleanings/exam, and then we pay half on the big stuff when needed.

Yeah, that's what I've been looking at recently. We lost my wife's work sponsored dental when she retired, so I had to pay out of pocket first time with a new dentist a few weeks ago. About $500 for a limited exam, X-rays, and a few fillings on the same tooth. Not horrible, but more than we've been used to.

Anyway, they do have a $250/yr discount plan that includes 4 exams, X-rays, and 2 cleanings per year. Didn't sound like a bad option and will probably go with that after the first of the year.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Your wife would have had the option to keep her dental coverage and your dentists through Cobra, of course maybe the cost was more than you wanted to pay?

Another option might be to check to see if there is a dental hospital anywhere close to you. The prices are pretty reasonable, all the work is done by students and supervised by their teachers at every step but I will say they are pretty slow because of that. I did it one year and the price and work was really good but i had to travel 40 minutes each way and it became a real hassle. They did a lot of work, not because they were trying to upsell me but because I decided to upgrade all my old fillings to composite and I'm glad I did. It cost a little bit more but I'm very happy with the results. It makes me feel better about my smile and that's well worth the cost.

 

[Montecfo]

Unless subsidized, dental plans make little financial sense. You are insuring relatively low costs due to policy limits.

 

[athena53]

Unless subsidized, dental plans make little financial sense. You are insuring relatively low costs due to policy limits.

Yep. Plenty of threads here on the subject but the limits on the annual payout have been a big drawback for me; when I do have an issue it’s usually something major (like an implant) and the insurance doesn’t pay much.

 

[scrabbler1]

A few years ago, I investigated buying dental insurance through the ACA. I could not find one which met my needs while keeping my current dentist. I would have had to buy a lesser plan, change dentists, or pay twice as much for my desired plan (outside the ACA). So, I stayed put, without insurance, with my current dentist. It's a small part of my expenses, so not a big deal.

 

[teej1985]

Pass on that. If you want dental insurance, you want to use Physicians Mutual which has no cap on annual benefits.

https://www.physiciansmutual.com/web/dental

 

[PaunchyPirate]

After blindly purchasing a dental plan off the ACA exchange in year 1 of my retirement, I then did a more detailed look the next year. The math never adds up to buy it. Or off the exchange. Since then, I’ve just used various discount plans instead. I’m currently just using a service bundle directly from my dentist for a fixed price.

 

[braumeister]

We have a subsidized dental plan, courtesy of DW's last employer. Premiums are about $400/year for the two of us, and they pay up to $1,000/year per person.

In many years, they have had to fork over every bit of that $1,000 which makes it $600 less out of our pocket. Definitely a good deal, even considering the years our dental bills are less. But I'm sure there are no unsubsidized plans available that can compare.