Understanding Cheap Dental Insurance

What is “cheap”? The word can have several different meanings, and when looking for something that is cheap, it is best to be absolutely sure about what you are getting. For example, cheap can mean a poor quality item or service with little to no real value, or it could mean something that costs very little but is of perfectly acceptable value.

In the modern economy people are looking for cheap things of all kinds. We want cheap entertainment, cheap food, and especially cheap gas. All of these examples of cheap do not fall into the “poor quality” definition. The same thing applies when we look for cheap insurance coverage, and finding cheap dental insurance really demands an understanding of the two meanings of the word.

Why is that? Because many health insurance companies try to bundle dental coverage into their policies, offering riders that cost the customer upwards of one thousand dollars or more annually for the coverage. Unfortunately, most dental insurance policies come with so many restrictions, limitations and maximum coverage amounts that they are hardly worth the money. Clearly, these fall under the first definition of cheap – poor quality items of little value.

Then there are discount dental plans, which some people incorrectly refer to as cheap dental insurance. These plans are not insurance coverage, but instead are memberships in an enormous network of discount shoppers. They are actually similar to the big warehouse stores popping up all over the country. What the discount dental plans provide is cheap memberships that provide access to remarkably well priced services from a huge network of dentists and dental specialists.

The cheapness of the discount dental plans is of the second definition however – something that costs very little but is of good value. This is because they give the members a big discount on every single service or procedure they use through a network provider.

To explain how the cheap dental insurance contracts are so different from the discount dental plans consider the following: a person pays one thousand dollars for their annual “cheap” dental insurance contract. This contract has asked them to wait a full year before going for a root canal procedure. The procedure is going to cost $750, fifty percent of which they must pay per the terms of their insurance. This means that over the course of the year they will have paid $1,375 for their insurance and dental care. The person who enrolled in a discount dental plan paid one hundred dollars for their membership fee, and a week later found they too needed a root canal. They were scheduled right away and received the forty percent discount per the terms of the plan. This means that over the course of the year they paid $400 for their dental care. Clearly, the “cheap” dental insurance lives up to its label, while the discount dental plan deserves a gold star.

This is the kind of example that can be made over and over again when reviewing the difference between discount dental plans and cheap dental insurance, and it behooves consumers to understand exactly what they get before they make the purchase.