Thinking About Dropping Dental Insurance

[McD]

So early last year, I had some pretty extensive dental work done (removing old root canal, temporary crown, new root canal, new crown) and our dental insurance paid very little of it. They paid approximately 300$ towards everything and we paid $1200ish. Since my work does not offer dental insurance, we are given a $150 dental allowance each year.

Our yearly premium is $720. I discussed dropping the policy with DH and putting the 30$ a month into a HSA style account. He's all for it. Also factoring into my decision is that our dental premium increases every year, costs at the dentist increase every year, but our benefits never increase. While at the dentist, I asked them if they accept patients without dental insurance, if they would take cash payments, payment plans, etc. They were all for it, especially when I explained my reasoning.

Has anyone else ever done this? Thoughts? Am I missing anything glaringly obvious? I mean, the first thought that jumps out is potential dental work in the future, but we are going to be paying otu regardless since the benefits are so bad.

[nuisance26]

~We've had years where we "broke even" on our dental insurance and I began to think about dropping it. It drives me crazy shelling out $800 a year for 8 cleanings. We always pay 20-60% on procedures anyway.
Then we have years like 2009 when DH had over $3K of work done and both children needed extreme corrective procedures under anesthesia. The insurance saved us almost $4K that year.
I think a lot of places would give you services for half price if you payed cash but insurance isn't something *I* would drop altogether with kids in the house. ~

[bonnotsm9]

We haven't taken dental insurance for years since it at best is just a break-even investment.

[Greebo]

So early last year, I had some pretty extensive dental work done (removing old root canal, temporary crown, new root canal, new crown) and our dental insurance paid very little of it. They paid approximately 300$ towards everything and we paid $1200ish. Since my work does not offer dental insurance, we are given a $150 dental allowance each year.

Our yearly premium is $720. I discussed dropping the policy with DH and putting the 30$ a month into a HSA style account.

$30*12 = $360. Is it $30 per pay?

Regardless - if your policy is charging you $720 to pay out $300 while your part of the costs is $1,200 something is wrong here - probably the fact that you're using them.

My own dental policy through work would be for family half per pay of what you pay, and our cost is 20% of the dental bill where they pay 80% up to a $3k limit - so for us its worth it.

For you? Sounds like self insuring is a plan.

[McD]

320$ per pay period is correct Greebo. Sorry I didn't clarify that.

[MomToTwoBoys]

Hey Nichole,

I'd say take the amount you're paying for the premium and put that into a HSA like you want to. It'll be there to help out when Maggie and Wesley need it the most, plus you have the HSA thing through your work anyways. If you're not getting an increase in benefit payments through the insurance but everything else is going up, I don't blame you for wanting to nix it out all together.

Question for you, though:

Have you checked out any other possible insurance coverages that may be better in the long run for you all?

Our insurance coverage is actually pretty good, so I wish I had more advice for you.

[Greebo]

320$ per pay period is correct Greebo. Sorry I didn't clarify that.

$320 per pay period? So you're paid twice a year?

[Nishu]

What do they pay on preventive care? If you drop your dental insurance, you're going to be paying for checkups for 4 people each year.

You also need to take into account what the dentist charges people who don't have insurance. Dentists who participate in an insurance plan typically agree to caps on what they can charge for certain services. My dentist's regular price for services is always much higher than my insurance company agrees to. As as example, the dentist might charge 325 for a service, but my insurance might cap that charge at 250. If they only pay 175 of that bill and you pay 75, it looks like they only saved you 175 bucks when in fact they saved you 250. If I tallied up the amount my insurance saved me by applying a cap to the cost, it paid for itself in only that way.