If my dental insurance has 100% coinsurance on preventative and basic care, 70% coinsurance on major care, a deductible of $50, and a maximum payout of $2000, does that mean I can only spend the insurance $ on major services and pay out of pocket for everything else?
I work in a healthcare adjacent field but even half my coworkers would probably still have difficulty answering these questions so take what I say as a hopeful truth.
Yes you would be correct. And your major care the insurance will only pay 30% of, up to $2000. To hit that max coverage amount you’d have to have a total cost of $6,666.66 and you’d owe out of pocket $4,666.66. (I actually just realized I forgot the $50 deductible but numbers are close enough).
Also for major care, many dental plans (less obvious when through an employer but still possible) there may be a waiting period to use those benefits such as 6-18 months. This is to prevent someone from getting insurance, using it immediately for the benefit, and then cancelling (or even if not cancelling, they just don’t want someone who knows they have a large procedure coming up to sign up just to save $).
To be honest that plan doesn’t sounds great and I’m shocked preventive isn’t fully covered or at least covered with a deductible. If it’s an option i’d do the math to see if it’s worth just saving the premiums and paying outright. Additionally many dental practices will negotiate discounts for cash payments.
Edit: Also thanks for the inspiration to write my first Lemmy comment. I don’t usually feel I have something unique to offer but this excited me!
Of course! Hopefully they can look into a different future plan. I do know a lot of people who just don’t bother with dental insurance due to the poor coverage overall.
It’s a shame most of the world doesn’t treat dental as medical considering the health risks of not treating those conditions.