Have you been considering a family dental insurance plan? If so, then you need to read the following article. We’ve done a direct comparison between dental insurance plans and dental discount plans and the results between the two, good and bad, are below. This should allow you to make an informed decision before you make a purchase. Read on.
We’ll begin with family dental insurance. Dental insurance is still a decent deal if you can get it through a group plan, possibly through your employer. Most companies that offer dental coverage get a very reasonable group rate and pass it on to the employees at price that they can usually afford, although they normally have to pay additional for their entire family to be covered. Most family dental plans will cost as much as $100.00 per month if purchased privately.
Normally, dental insurance plans won’t cover pre-existing conditions. This means that if you or one of your family members has a cavity, that is obviously not new, then you would most likely have to pay for that filling procedure out of your own pocket. You will normally have a waiting period for a minimum of six months and as long as two years before the plan really “kicks in” and provides adequate coverage for yourself and your family. Most dental insurance will cover a good portion of your regular check ups though. This is preventive coverage and it makes sense for them to pay for a small amount now to make certain that everything is alright, rather than letting a problem go and paying a much larger amount later.
Dental discount plans are exactly that, a discount plan. They first became popular a little over ten tears ago and, for some individuals and families, have been a godsend because they are unable to to afford traditional dental insurance premiums, especially when they would have such a long waiting period before they could have their pre-existing condition repaired.
This is how a dental discount plan works. You pay a small fee, either monthly or annually, to have either yourself or your entire family covered by the plan. After joining you’ll be sent paperwork with all of the discounted rates that you will have to pay for each procedure performed and also a list of all participating dentists in their network that practice in your area.
The way that this works is you simply set up an appointment with the dentist and then pay them the discounted fee after the procedure has been performed. That’s it. They get paid their discounted rate cash on the barrel head and you get a substantial savings on your dental work by simply becoming a member of the discount dental plan and by paying cash at the time of your visit. Pre-existing conditions are fine, there are no age limits or exclusions and there is no billing done.