<$Tuesday, January 22, 2008$>
Good Deals on Dental Care
| *Sponsored Post* My husband hasn't been to the dentist in years. He knows he needs to go get his teeth cleaned and checked, and that he'll probably have cavities that need to be dealt with. He also needs to eventually have his wisdom teeth removed. So when the open enrollment period for my employer's benefits came around at the end of 2007, I enrolled him in the company's dental plan. I didn't like it; at $35 per paycheck--$70 per month--that seemed kind of steep to me, especially when a month's worth of premiums would almost cover the cost of a cleaning. But not knowing what kind of work he'll need done to his teeth, and not wanting to be caught with our pants down if he needed something major, we bit the bullet and signed him up anyway. That's what I get for not doing my research first. Instead of expensive insurance that only pays a percentage of most procedures anyway, we probably should have checked into discount dental plans. These are different from dental insurance in that instead of premiums and copay, you simply pay a one time annual fee to receive steeply discounted services for the entire year. Annual fees run as low as $79.95 for individuals--that's a heck of a bargain compared to my $75 monthly premium--and $129.95 for entire families, regardless of how many children you have. That particular dental plan also covers prescriptions, vision and chiropractic care, and includes three extra months of coverage for the first year. It's pretty frustrating to find out about this after we committed to a year of expensive insurance, let me tell you. I'm bookmarking this site, and when open enrollment comes back around for 2009, we're going to seriously consider switching over to this. Labels: bargains, disclosure, frugality, healthy living, insurance, PPP |
