Fed gov dental insurance

[Anonymous]

I have Aetna health insurance which includes dental. I pay just a small copay for cleaning. I recently added BCBS because both my teens need braces and it covers half.

[Anonymous]

UHC is useless I found - several years ago it wouldn’t pay for fillings that weren’t silver. Which a) no one wants and b) no one performs.

I had ok experiences with Delta; but switched to MetLife which is far better.

[Anonymous]

If you only need cleanings or the occasional filling, it’s not worth buying dental insurance. I have GEHA for medical and also dental. GEHA pays for cleanings, which is adequate for my DH and our very young kids. I have a dental plan that covers just me. I need a crown every couple years it seems. It can be hard to predict so I get the coverage even though it’s not always worth it.

[Anonymous]

Agree with others that dental insurance is mostly not worth it. Review your health insurance plan and available dental plans carefully. Most health insurance covers routine cleaning and most dental insurance have high premiums for limited coverage.

I had some planned significant dental work a few years ago, and it did make sense for me to purchase insurance for that year. I don’t remember the exact details, but for something like $6000 of dental work, dental insurance covered 60%, and the annual premium was maybe $1800, so I ended up saving almost $1800 with the insurance - totally worth it. But if the work I needed only cost $3000 I would have just broken even with insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geha is the best as most doc will take it and have decent fees

Delta and Care First wost carriers around and most docs around here are dropping.

signed a dentist

We got GEHA dental (feds) only when our 2 kids were ready for braces. Now that they’re almost finished with them I’m not sure it will be worth it. Kids see an in network dentist but DH and I have a dentist out of network.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. This is great. I’ll definitely look at GEHA.

A couple of questions:

1) Some of you suggest that your medical insurance covers your cleanings and basic X-rays. I’ll have BCBS Basic for medical. Does that cover dental cleanings?

2) Some of you suggest that dental insurance is not worth it. But, if your medical insurance does not cover cleanings, each is $200+ X 2/yr X 4 family members = $1600. A basic/standard dental plan is $75/month or $900 year. How is that not worth it, even if you complete no additional work?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I see that BCBS Basic provides a cleaning and X-ray benefit for a $35 copay, but only for in-network dentists. There is no benefit for OON dentists. I’ve never considered my health insurance for dental coverage.

With most dental insurances there is no co-pay for a basic cleaning, so using BCBS Basic for cleanings will cost $35x2x4=$280. Given that standard care dental insurance costs $900/year, you’re ahead by $620 using Basic. That leaves no room for using an OON dentist or much work to be done.

Guess it really depends on your dentist taking BCBS Basic, otherwise the benefit is useless, unless you’re willing to change dentists.

[Anonymous]

We use the 35 BCBS basic check coverage and pay for x-rays out of pocket. Most years that's it. Any extra can be reduced through FSA. Its all a gamble of course. I would decide based on frequency of dental work in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geha is the best as most doc will take it and have decent fees

Delta and Care First wost carriers around and most docs around here are dropping.

signed a dentist

Delta and Care First are the most common. I'd be really surprized if any dentist is dropping them.

My dentist and the kids’ dentist dropped Delta. They said they were losing money based on the reimbursement rate. We switched to MetLife because we didn’t want to look for new dentists.

[Anonymous]

I really like Metlife.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geha is the best as most doc will take it and have decent fees

Delta and Care First wost carriers around and most docs around here are dropping.

signed a dentist

Delta and Care First are the most common. I'd be really surprized if any dentist is dropping them.

You're mistaken, providers have left care first and delta big time. Either crappy office with crazy double booking schedules, docs who work on volume and the older gheezer doc that doesn't really care are left taking them. Just saying, I know the industry in and out

You sound like a peach. I have Delta and my dentist, my daughter’s dentist, and my daughter’s orthodontist all take it.

[Anonymous]

Every dentist I've ever called takes Delta. We like Delta had them forever they have good coverage. I would go with Delta op.