A Dental Plan as a Supplement If You Are With or Without Dental Insurance Coverage

By Staff Writer at DiscountedDentalCard.com

Even if one has dental insurance the deductlble, waiting period and coinsurance can add up to a lot of out ot pocket. One way to reduce these out of pocket expenses is with a dental plan supplement.

Most know how important it is to have insurance for health expenses.  One major health problem not covered by an individual or group health insurance policy has buried many people under a mountain of medical bills...often resulting in bankruptcy. Therefore, most employed take advantage of at least some of the health insurance benefits available to them at work. Some employees however think that dental and vision care are covered by their employer's sponsored basic health insurance plan and are surprised  to learn they are not. Most of the time supplemental dental insurance must be offered as a supplemental benefit employees need to opt into on an annual basis and pay an additional premium. 

When a supplemental dental care policy is offered and opted into, there still are limitations employees need to be aware of. First of all, there will most probably be a deductible of up to several hundred dollars before coverage begins. Then there will be a coinsurance percentage the employee is responsible for. Typically 20%.  Additionally there will be a maximum annual benefit usually between $750 and $1,000. Many procedures may not be covered such as cosmetic, reconstruction or oral surgery.

A supplement can be added to a group dental policy to help lower overall costs when non-covered dental bills are still high.

One option for lowering dental bills and help to pay for deductibles, coinsurance and expenses beyond policy limits is to become a member of a dental plan and obtain a dental discount card.  With this card members enjoy discounts on dental work of up to 60%. Most of these plans have tens of thousands of members. National plans will sometimes have hundreds of thousands of members.  These plans are not dental insurance but negotiate large discounts to the normal fee schedule offered dentists that choose to become listed and approved by the plan. These plans are designed to substantially lower the cost of routine dental care such as cleaning, exams including x rays, regular fillings, crowns and pain relief. Depending upon the dental plan elected some dental plans will not include cosmetics, implants or complex procedures such as orthodontics and oral surgery.  However, there are some higher priced plans that will include these high fee procedures in the discount schedule. A list of area dentists are provided by the dental plan.  A member can easily move from one dentist to another.  This is especially handy when moving across the country if the member elects a dental plan national in scope.

If you are a college student...

College students of large universities may have a supplemental dental insurance plan available when registered and attending the university if eighteen or older. This becomes important especially when the student is dropped off of the family heath plan. These university and college sponsored plans can be quite cost effective for college students costing from $100 to $200 per year.

Maybe your dentist is member of a network already

Another option available is to join a plan sponsored by a network of dental offices.  These plans are available to join at the dental office and offer some of the same discounts with routine dental care as national programs.  The limitation to these programs is that the member is generally restricted to local or regional dentist offices.