Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts about dental insurance for individuals, families, small groups and Medicare eligible individuals.
The Premium plan is fairly comprehensive covering all of the minor and major dental services that are normally encountered. In addition, it also has limited coverage for teeth whitening, mouth-guards, orthodontics, and dental implants. The major services are covered at 50 percent after the 6-month waiting period. The 6-month waiting period is better than some plans that have a 12-month waiting period, but it also adds to the cost of the Premium plan.
Under this scenario, when the member cost-sharing plus premiums are added together, the Delta Dental Gold plan was the least expensive. The plan costs were exactly the same for years 3, 4, and 5. It was the monthly premium that made the big difference. The Delta Dental Gold plan had a lower premium, and assuming all plans would inflate at the same rate, it will remain lower for the remainder of the enrollment.
If you are over 50 years old and know that you have immediate dental issues that need to be addressed, or will have in the next couple of years, the No Wait plan from Morgan White Group Dental for Everyone, underwritten by Delta Dental, may be a good option. It is also one of the few plans available to individuals and families that will provide coverage and cost-sharing for dental implants.
The value of dental insurance is questionable in the minds of many consumers. And I don’t necessarily disagree with that evaluation. However, the importance of regular dental exams, cleanings, and hygiene cannot be disputed. If dental insurance keeps a person on track with good dental hygiene and habits, they will be spared the expense of expensive dental procedures in the future.
The big question is how do all these dental tools included in the dental plan help reduce the premiums. The tooth brushes wirelessly connect to a Beam application on the member’s smart phone. Yes, your toothbrush will use Bluetooth technology – isn’t that ironic – to log your household’s brushing frequency. All the frequencies from all the members in the group are then aggregated to provide a score. If the score is high enough, any future rate increase on the renewal date of the dental plan is reduced.
There a lots of different dental plans off-exchange or outside of Covered California. The number of plans makes comparisons complicated and confusing. Delta Dental and Anthem Blue Cross offer dental plans through Covered California and a variety of different plans off-exchange. The single largest difference between the Covered California plans and the ones offered off-exchange is the 12 month waiting period for major dental work such as extractions, root canals, and crown. The six month waiting period usually applies to minor restorative work such as getting a cavity filled.
Consumers, agents and Covered California representatives have been flummoxed over how to change the household health insurance plan after the account has been automatically renewed by Covered California for 2016. It may have come as surprise to Covered California that not everyone wants to renew their current 2015 health plan. After Covered California automatically renewed the health plan there is no visible way to change the plan…unless you know the trick.
Tucked into every individual and family health plan in California are some very good dental benefits for children. Unfortunately, the health plans don’t make it very easy to identify which dentists will accept the pediatric dental insurance that comes standard for dependents under 19 years of age. If a parent doesn’t select the correct plan […]
If you thought health insurance was confusing, try comparing individual and family dental plans. The insurance industry has taken a simple concept and turned it over to their marketing departments which created too many plans without proper explanation. However, most dental plans are surprisingly similar and with a little bit of filtering it is […]
Covered California has quietly announced that they will not be offering individual and family dental plans through the exchange in 2015. The dumping of the family dental plan options comes after Covered California released a whole dental plan booklet of family dental plans in August of 2014. No reason was given as to why the dental plans will […]
