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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
It's open enrollment time for my company and I always compare the new prices of everything to the old and fortunately nothing has gone way up. I did see a discussion about how a good number of dentists are starting to drop dental insurance companies because of ever-dropping reimbursement rates and offer a membership/subscription type payment program instead. I checked with my dentist and was actually surprised to find that he does offer this now and the costs are not much more than going through who I have now which is Aetna. Does anyone here do this? Are you happy with it? | ||
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Invest Early, Invest Often |
I'm retired with no employer medical coverage. The dentist we use has a "Membership" program. Ours is $499 for the year for 2 of us. Gets us 2 cleanings, x rays, whitening, some other stuff and "20% off" for fillings, crowns, etc. Prices seems fair, much better than my former dentist in Kalifornia. | |||
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Baroque Bloke |
No. I just pay my dentist. Reasonable rates, and glad that I don’t have to have government-mandated insurance. Wish all medical was that way too. Serious about crackers | |||
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| Three Generations of Service  |
My dentist has a "Denvantage" program. $300-ish per person per year, covers two cleanings, one set of x-rays and 10% off all other care. Just the cleanings and x-rays put us well past the break-even point. Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent. | |||
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Member |
My dentist stopped taking insurance recently. It's unfortunate because I really liked him. Now I've got to crunch the numbers to see if I keep insurance and find a new dentist, or if I drop insurance and pay out of pocket. "The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford, "it is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards." "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in." | |||
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| Lawyers, Guns and Money  |
I see that as a pretty good thing. It's more transparent and it cuts out the HUGE middle-man. Much of what you pay for is just the administrative cost of processing and claims paying. In the old days, you paid your doctor. It was negotiated directly, like any other service. The doctor actually worked for YOU. Guess what? When there's a 3rd party paying the bill it makes the provider less accountable to you. "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown "The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor | |||
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| No More Mr. Nice Guy |
Look at what your insurance premiums and out of pocket costs are, then compare it to self-pay and to using the dentist's plan. For us we were about break-even having insurance vs being cash-pay with a cash discount. My dentist is expensive, more than my insurance ever really covered. We are now retired and have no dental insurance available. The dentist offer a subscription type of plan which in essence is about 25% off of two regular visits per year, including x-rays and cleanings. There is no extra discount for things like fillings or crowns compared to 100% self-pay. If I actually went twice per year, yes I would save some money with their subscription. | |||
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Fighting the good fight |
Yep. Always run the numbers. Not dental specifically, but for nearly two decades I skipped the optional vision insurance coverage through my employer, because it was cheaper for me to pay out of pocket for the annual exam and a year's worth of contact lenses than it would be to pay the monthly insurance premiums plus the portion of the exam and contacts that insurance didn't cover. So I could easily see it being entirely possible for some dental insurance to end up working out similarly compared to self pay. | |||
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