What can happen if you don’t have dental insurance?
Very few people LIKE to pay for health insurance, myself included. However, there is one type of insurance that recently I don’t mind paying one bit: dental insurance.
How Dental Insurance Works
There are different types of dental insurance, but the most common generally requires you to pay a deductible dictated by the plan, and the plan will cover up to a certain amount per year for services. For each service, the dentist and insurance provider have an agreed fee, which is generally less than the total price of the service. The plan also (usually) only covers a certain percentage of the negotiated price for the service you receive. For example, a dentist’s price for a filling may be $ 319, but the rate negotiated with your insurance provider may be only $ 200. Your plan may cover 90% of fillings, which would then require you to pay the other 10%, or $ 20, for it.
Understanding how dental insurance works is certainly important, but what I think may be even more important is understanding why you should have it. I’m a traveling ad for dental insurance.
What can happen when you are not insured?
About three years ago, I turned 26 and could no longer stay on my parents’ health insurance plan, which included dental coverage. At the same time, he was also in graduate school, only teaching part-time. I did a little research and found a major medical plan through the health insurance marketplace and decided that it wouldn’t be a big deal to give up dental coverage until I finished graduate school (I needed every penny I could save!). This was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made in my adult life.
Two and a half years later, I was offered dental insurance through a new job and decided to enroll. I found a dentist, scheduled a checkup, went for that checkup, and got some pretty terrible dental news. Because I put off getting dental insurance (and therefore put off going to the dentist), I have come across dozens of procedures, ranging from fillings to root canals to crowns, that need to be done.
You’re probably thinking, “but you have dental insurance to pay for that,” and that’s partially true. However, dental insurance only covers up to a certain amount each year, as I mentioned. For my plan, this is $ 1,500, and with all the work I need to do, that number will be far exceeded … exceeded by thousands.
Words of advice
My dentist strongly recommends that I do not postpone these procedures until my insurance restarts next year (trust me, I asked him). He tells me that “if you are going to wait for the insurance, you will always be waiting for the insurance.” At first his words seemed harsh to me, but now I completely agree. If I just wait and finish a bit when the insurance covers it, I’ll always try to catch up, which will probably create more problems in the meantime.
I understand that not everyone will experience the same dental bad luck as me, but I also had no idea that I would run into so many problems. If I had any hint of the problems, I definitely would have put up with it and simply bought dental insurance along with my Obamacare plan on the market. That said, you never know and it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Lesson learned.
So please learn from my mistakes. Get dental insurance, get your exams, fill a cavity here and there so you don’t end up like me and have to fill a cavity almost EVERYWHERE.