Best Federal Supplemental Dental Plan?

[Anonymous]

Getting confused looking at all the options. We spent a fortune last year on dental care (for one tooth!) for my husband, so looking to get some coverage this year. Don't want to overdo it, but want to be sure its worth my while. Have two kiddos, as well. Any key differences between Aetna, MetLife and BC/BS plans?

[Anonymous]

The benefeds website will allow you to compare plans pretty easily. Just look to see if your dentist is a preferred or participating provider in any of the plans. And, evaluate coverage for the type of dental work you're likely to need next year.

We've had MetLife for a few years now (just for DH and I). DH's dentist is a participating provider and the insurance coverage for him has been great. My dentist doesn't not participate but they'll submit a claim for me and I get a check back from MetLife pretty quickly for a portion of the bill.

I don't think our dental insurance is worth the cost if you usually only have regular maintenance (cleaning) visits and you don't use a preferred provider. I don't have our kids covered because a chunk of their 6 month visits is covered by health insurance. Most of the dental plans it seem have pretty minimal orthodontia coverage especially when combined with and low maximum annual benefit levels.

[Anonymous]

The best plan is going to depend a lot on what you need. We signed up DH this past year for self-only coverage because his dentist told him he needed a root canal and several crowns. For that kind of extensive work, we found that United Concordia offered the best coverage for the money.

With that said, now that everything has been completed, we're terminating the policy. Unless you anticipate a lot of cavities, braces, or the kind of really expensive stuff I referenced above, supplemental Federal dental insurance isn't worth the cost of the premiums. Get on a regular health plan (something like BCBS basic or maybe Kaiser) that covers cleanings and x-rays.