How Much Do You Pay For Dental Insurance

Feb 22 2008

Posted by NCN as Resources |

My wife is an educator and next week is ‘Open Enrollment’. We have to make a decision about dental insurance - Currently, we have coverage for my wife and my daughter, and we need to ad my son and me to the plan.

Before we make the change, I thought I’d poll my good readers and ask -

How much do you pay (per month) for dental insurance?

What kind of coverage do you have?

Have any of you purchased dental insurance in the ‘open market’? If so, is it any good?

Please note - When you ask a question like this on a ‘blog’ - certain folks will want to fill the comments with spam. So, please don’t link to any dental insurers or their websites. Trust me, if you simply mention a company, that will be cool, and if I decide to check out their services, I’ll be more than happy to mention them in an article. But, if you mention a company and it is clear that you ‘work’ for that company - I’ll simply delete your comment and mark it as spam.

Share and Enjoy:

20 Responses

SingleGuyMoney

February 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
1

This probably won’t help you much but I pay $7 a month with my health benefits plan.
Seb

February 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 pm
2

I pay about $20 a month for my wife and I through my employer. At my old job, I didn’t have dental insurance and bought a plan through a third party. The name escapes me at the moment, but it wasn’t much more expensive than what I am paying right now.
Laurie

February 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
3

$87 (for a family of 4), $50 deductibles for any procedures (cleanings are free 2 x per year per person). Then everything is covered at 80%, we pay the other 20%, but this is of the “agreed upon rate” with BCBS of GA - not what they charge everyone else which is about 25% less to begin with. They only cover 1/2 of braces and only on children.

I’ve done the math and with 4 people having 2 cleanings a year we’re paying a little extra - but all 4 years we’ve had it we’ve had 1 or 2 other little things and it has ended up saving us money (especially the years we have x-rays done) . I’ve been pretty happy with it other than the fact that the main pediatric dental group in metro atlanta (the one with 13 or so locations) will not take BCBS of GA unless you pay at the time of service and then they charge $25 more than the agreement with BCBS.

Given my DH is a prof in Georgia I’m betting this is the same dental plan that they are offering you.
NCN

February 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
4

Laurie - The plan that we have been offered sound similar, but costs a little more. (You might want to check the plan - it looks like they went up statewide?)
NCN
Odnal

February 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
5

I’d be curious about this too. I have a high deductible health insurance plan with an HSA and would like to get a high-deductible dental plan also.
tlange

February 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 am
6

I obtain dental insurance through my employer and I pay $23.00 a month for coverage. The insurance is through CIGNA Dental and it is great coverage. My late mother worked in dentistry for over 40 years and she said to avoid a DMO (similar to an HMO for dentistry) at all costs because the standard and level of care is not as good.
tracy ho

February 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 am
7

Its good ideal for dental insurance for family , I had basically fork out yearly of RM 1000/- for 4 kids of mind as my insurance panel did not cover for it.

Great recommendation ,

Tracy ho
wisdomgettingloaded
R keel

February 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 am
8

Nobody has mentioned anything about the caps and exclusions. That’s the biggest problem with dental insurance.
Andy

February 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 am
9

Yes, pay attention to the annual caps and with kids orthodonics. At least for me with the company provided benefits, it works out to an annual cap of $1800 / person which you need a crown or two your done for year and the rest is out of pocket. If you are planning major work, max out an HCSA for that year to at least help bit. I don’t have kids, but I believe orthodonics is a little different in that I would get an lifetime max per person, I don’t where that stands relative to the cost.
Joe W

February 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
10

I pay $33 a month with Delta Dental.
The Happy Rock

February 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 am
11

We pay 7.00$ a week for any amount of family we have. We would get free coverage for the whole family as a perk, but I did the math and since our teeth aren’t perfect the upgraded coverage is usually worth it if we get a little work done during the year. The plan sounds similar to Laurie’s. No co pays, cleanings and preventative care is covered. On a single filling with a bill of 200-250 we pay about 12-20 bucks.
Eden

February 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
12

I declined dental insurance where I work because the only ‘good’ plan (where I could choose my own dentist) was $50/ month and of course that did not cover 100% of costs so I didn’t see it as being worth it. We have no children so I’m not concerned about any big dental expenses.
Michelle

February 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
13

We pay quite a bit (I guess) $39 bi-weekly — but we opted for the more expensive plan. This plan (Met life) pays more up to $3000 a year for each of us (we are a family of 5) All preventive things are free. (cleanings, xrays etc) and pays out bout 80% of procedures as long as you use a network provider. It was much needed this year and actually the first time our employer offered a dental plan. We will get our money’s worth I think this year.
Livingalmostlarge

February 23rd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
14

$5/month for DH and I. Not much more if we had kids. $2000/year annual cap, $50 deductible and basically 100% normal, 90% basics, 80% extra, and 60% major work.

I never bought it alone, but my friend did. Usually you have to wait 1 year to stat collecting so it’s not a preexisiting condition.

I have delta dental.
The Happy Rock

February 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
15

I have delta dental out of California, if it matters.
Laurie

February 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
16

Nope - ours is $87 and change (but my health insurance went up 16% Jan 1). I did talk to my sister and bil who are on the K-12 teachers plan in Banks County and it did just go up. For some reason the university “teachers” have different dates for open enrollment (back in November & early December) and the prices are always slightly different from the K-12 despite being the same plans. We’ve found the same is true of the health plans and the prof’s are even offered 1 health plan the K-12 teachers aren’t. I’m guessing maybe because prof’s are state employees whereas teachers are county, but the Board of Regents offers plans to the counties? Who knows - all I know is that they make the whole thing as confusing as possible!

Good luck.
Future Millionaire

February 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
17

Seeing everyone’s payments helps me appreciate my current plan more. I pay $6/bi-weekly so roughly $13 a month. Its just myself through an employer plan. Unfortunately my insurance does not cover the dentist I’ve gone to since I was a child so I do pay a little more each visit for that, but to me its worth it.

Like Laurie, I’ve also done the math several times to see if I’d be better to risk it and not have insurance and while the numbers work out, I like having the piece of mind that if I had to have a crown or a root canal etc that I’m at least partially covered.
Amphritrite

February 27th, 2008 at 10:54 am
18

I work for a union on a University campus, and so, I pay nothing for dental. My medical costs run about $30 a month (I think it’s $28), and I pay about $20 into a pre-tax flexible spending account for copays and such.
Brandon Barkley

February 27th, 2008 at 11:07 am
19

I pay 18.79 a month for my wife and I to have Comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage covers 100% of two cleanings a year, 80% of any fillings, and 50% of major work (crowns, bridges, and such). The downside is they do not cover implants.

It would be just a little bit more to have full family coverage from what I understand. There is also a cheaper Preventative plan that has the same coverage for cleanings and fillings but does not cover major work at all.

By the way, I did some looking on the open-market once, and I noticed that many insurance accounts have a certain time before you can get any non-preventative work done.
Theresa Benjamin

April 12th, 2008 at 12:09 am
20

I would have to pay $102 a month for myself and 2 children. More children wouldnt add to cost. I elected not to enroll. I figure I will come out a little ahead if I dont take the insurance. My kids usually have no cavities, sometimes one. This employer insurance doesnt cover any ortho. And my son needs braces badly. Large space problems as my dentist informed me. I pay 100 every paycheck/every 2 weeks for 2 kids health insurance and the employer pays for mine. $20 co-pay office visits. Pretty good on the prescriptions. I am satisfied with this so far. But I havent really used it except for my daughter once and I havent gotten bill yet but was told they paid for the strep test and like I said the presciption co-pay wasnt bad. I only bought for the peace of mind of a big health expense otherwise out of pocket I think Id be ahead w/o it.