"The Trouble With Dental Insurance"

"Why is dental insurance so lousy?"  Great question. The reality is that dental insurance IS typically pretty "lousy" for both the patient and the dentist. There's not enough coverage offered, too many things aren't covered at all, the co-pays often are too high and the limitations are fairly strict.  Why is this?  The short answer is simply that it's just not profitable for the insurance companies. There is speculation as to why this is the case. Dental Insurance began in the late 60s/early 70s. A company called Delta Dental offered insurance with a $1,000 annual cap (max payout). In the early 70s, $1,000 bought alot of dental care. Today, 2012, the average cap (max payout) on dental plans is.......$1,000..That's right..TODAY it's STILL $1,000 (on average). So in 40 years, the payout benefit max has not gone up. Insurance companies have raised caps on nearly everything EXCEPT dental insurance. So why then, is offering good dental insurance not profitable? First of all, the useage factor. Dental insurance almost always gets "used" often times right up to the max. This is not so with other types of insurance since the entire profit motive of insurance is based on a certain percentage of people not using it. Add to this the "built in" twice yearly recommended cleanings. Many dental problems are ignored for years. People will "save up" their problems until they get dental insurance only to find that there are waiting periods for pre-existing conditions...often times a year for major work. Almost all people with dental insurance will use it to a certain degree every year. Conversely, looking at typical health insurance by comparison, a great number of healthy people will often go years without seeing a doctor.  It is difficult for a dental insurance company to charge a high enough premium to offset the useage factor, but still be affordable for the average consumer. While you pay health insurance premiums to guard against catastrophic events, what's a really bad scenario for dental work? $5,000/yr...$10,000/yr?  How much premium are people willing to pay to guard against that? Probably not much, right?  So lets say you pay $50/month premium for dental. $50 x 12 months is $600/yr paid in premium by YOU. Your max payout is $1,000/year. So you spend $600 in premium to get $400 back in net benefits. Not a good deal huh? So we're all sort of in the same boat, including Sherwin. To provide full coverage, an insurance company would have to charge more for premiums than a consumer would deem worth spending. So we get this current "hybrid" with a low max annual payout, waiting periods or no coverage at all for a procedure etc etc. Both dentists and patients alike don't like this scenario. My advice. If you need serious dental work done, work out a payment plan with your dentist. Most dentists, I suspect, would be amenable to such an arrangement. Keep the dental insurance premium in your pocket. It looks better there. Until next time good people.

                                             Glenn