It is no secret that the United States of America spends the most money in the world per person on our health and well-being. Our health systems are expensive and inefficient. The pharmaceutical companies are getting richer by the day!
Many Americans have been quarantining and have avoided regular medical, dental and vision annual exams and physicals, especially in 2020! This means there will be some unpleasant surprises during 2021 regular checkups and exams. Surprises are good on your birthday, not when it comes to your health.
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), nationally, 50.2% of adults aged 18-64 with private health insurance, had dental care coverage throughout the past 12 months.
My Uncle, Gerard Meade, was one of those uninsured, when he found out last year that he was going to need over $10,000 of dental work and surgery. This was not a surprise (maybe it was), as he had not gone for regular dental checkups in years. It created a scramble to figure out how to reduce these expenditures, which led him to pursue “dental savings plans.”
The dentists gave Gerard a 2-phase treatment program. Phase 1 was 9 surgical extractions and 2 bone replacement graphs. As it takes time for these procedures to heal, it was then time for Phase 2, which included 2 implants.
The Phase 1 quote was $5,673. Gerard used the Cigna Dental Savings Plan www.CignaDentalSavings.com which reduced his Phase 1 cost to $2,249. At first, he thought it was a scam, that he could enroll into one of these plans for roughly $100/year as an individual (who does NOT own a business) and two days later save this kind of money with no waiting period or dental insurance policy. That is the difference with savings or discount plans as they do NOT have the waiting periods or pre-existing condition exclusions that traditional dental insurance includes. In Phase 2, he was quoted $4,466 for 2 implants. He paid $3,300 after the dental savings plan applied discount.
His process was to first go to the dental savings plan company website to check if his dentist and surgeon accepted the plan. Then, he double-checked by calling his dentist’s office to confirm they accepted it. Gerard then got a quote from the surgeon which included the “dental code” and cost for each specific procedure. He called Cigna to confirm and received the discounted pricing. Most will agree his research time was well worth it!
MY TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT DENTAL INSURANCE AND SAVINGS PLANS:
For my Wave readers who are interested in learning more, or a dental insurance quote, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].
Be Positive, Test Negative and Keep the Faith!!