Choosing a Cheap Dental Insurance Plan
A single visit to the dentist is bound to leave our pockets substantially lighter. In several cases, dental insurance is over lapped with normal health insurance. However, there are also times where one can also get a totally independent policy for the same. Choosing a cheap dental insurance plan is quite difficult as the independent plan is mighty expensive, and the one that acts as an extension to health insurance plans often tends to be inadequate in terms of coverage.
Problems Associated Individual Insurance
The problem with standard dental insurance is that it tends to have a rather high premium. The average annual premium, ranges from $1,000 to $3,000. The rule of thumb is, more the premium or cost of insurance, more is the coverage going to be. On the whole, the logic says that cheap dental insurance plans and policies are not going to have a very broad coverage, thereby putting your dental health at a substantial risk.
Alternatively, even if you get an independent and individual, full coverage insurance policy, then the coverage would be broad, quite unused and expensive. Apart from that, irrespective of being an expensive policy, some conditions are never covered. Hence the difficulty in choosing an affordable dental insurance plan. But there are a couple of things that can be done. Some of them have been discussed in the following paragraphs, let’s take a look…
How to Choose an Affordable and Cheap Dental Insurance?
Having only single, cheap dental insurance plan, without any other backing plan is dangerous, as it covers very few things and tends to have deductibles. However, you can use more than one coverage or insurance policy to make things even, and get a really good coverage.
Employer Facilitated Plans
Several employers often provide a separate plan, which is collectively provided for all the employees and is managed and financed by the employer. The plans that are included in such a spectrum include, Dental Health Maintenance Organization Insurance Plans (DHMO) and Dental Preferred Provider Organization Plans (PPO).
The best thing about such a plan is that it provides for periodic dental care facilities, and smaller non surgical and non cosmetic procedures, and often it does not also have a deductible. Another plan is the Direct Reimbursement Plan (DRP), wherein a reimbursement is provided for certain dental care treatments.
Another similar one is the Least Expensive Alternative Treatment (LEAT), where compensation is provided for dental care costs. Now the problem with both these policies is that they tend to have deductibles, and only cover the cost of treatment. This would include eradication of infection, periodic cleanup, and other first aid procedures. However, orthodontic procedures, correction and procedures that tend to have an element of complexity, are not covered.
Hence if you have the aforementioned coverage, you can get a sort of add-on for complex procedures, now again these coverage tend to have a certain deductible, which is of course quite high. However, the plus point is that you get a remarkably good coverage, within a small and affordable dental plan.
Individual Plans at a Low Cost
There are some individually oriented plans which you can consider. Health insurance often covers some parts of dental insurance, such as first aid or some minor emergency procedures. However, dental care or complicated procedures such as tooth removal or orthodontic procedures are not included in the process. Hence, to cover up the dental care aspect of the coverage you can either avail a Dental Discount Plan and a AARP Dental Insurance.
It must be noted that no insurance plan is the ‘best’ or foolproof, all we need to do is just find the right one for ourselves.
