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Dental Insurance: Should I buy my own dental insurance? |
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Written by Vu Le, DDS
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 Medical insurance and car insurance protect you from catastrophes that can bankrupt you. Rarely do dental crisises cost anywhere near what a medical illness or a injury-involved car accident can. Because of this, dental insurance isn't critical. In fact, it's a game that the individual cannot win.
Cheaper insurance plans (see HMO vs PPO
) pay out less to the dentist. The less the payment level, the fewer
and poorer choices you have. Less payment to the dentist means getting
a dentist with either lower overhead, or more likely, higher volume.
Higher volume offices have higher square footage(higher rent), more
staff (higher payroll) , and therefore more pressure to produce more
revenue per patient. That makes you vulnerable to corner-cutting, excessive treatment
and high pressure.
Better PPO insurance plans cost about $100 per person, per month. In exchange, you get free cleanings and exams, and $1000 to $2000 per year of dental benefits. The vast majority of our PPO patients use preventative and nothing else. So you are usually getting about $320 or less of services paid for by the insurance company, and you are always paying out $1200 every year.
Medical insurance requires large pools of thousands of subscribers to be profitable. A heart attack can cost over one hundred thousand dollars. Dental insurance companies are profitable with just one subscriber...they usually pay out less than $300 per year (that's generously assuming people never miss a checkup) they'll never pay out more than $1000 per year, and they always make at least $1200 per year.
Like casino games, dental insurance is a game stacked in the house's favor...you simply cannot win.
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