Fulltimers: so what do YOU do for a dental plan?

[CD Smith]

Do you just pay as you go or did you set up a dental plan for yourself?

I've always wondered about this. I've been a full timer for over 5 years now working from home, but the job I left was at a large hospital and I had a great group health plan with a great benefits package. That package included a phenominal dental plan.

I can set up a similar plan myself with Blue Cross..... but since I'm only a workforce of one I don't have the power that my old hospital union had..... so I'm limited in what I can do here. It would be great if webmasters had a group plan, not sure what that would entail.

So far I've just been paying as I go. In recent years I've been paying about $250 per year to the dentist, for 1 regular cleaning/checkup, and for 1 filling (an old filling I had crumbled so I had to get it refilled).

That's pretty cheap as far as I know, but in the US it might be quite a bit more expensive.



So what do you all do as far as dental plans go?

[Bill]

For dentistry I pay cash.

An insurance plan for something non-catasrophic like dentistry is just going to end up costing you the same as cash anyway, or higher. You just pay it out in advance to the insurance company monthly, and let them earn on your cash. Just as easy and effective to put the money in your own accounts.

[T Pat]

I go to Tijuana and pay cash

[Surfn]

I pay cash...for everything. I don't believe in paying interest. I prefer to collect interest.

[Bunnyhop]

I used to have dentistry covered by my health plan....it actually wound up being cheaper for me to pay via cash....dentists (at least all the ones I've used) usually give major discounts on pricing if there's no insurance. I pay about $100 checkup in cash whereas I was paying $90 when I had an insurance plan (which was 80% coverage and cost me $35/mo to have denistry benefits).

It might come in handy for serious dentistry reconstruction (insurance I mean)...but the only real expensive dentist item I've had in years was a single root canal which wasn't all that expensive (it was the crown which was costly but isn't covered by most dental plans anyways).

The only insurance/benefits I have now is all disability/disaster insurance. If I'm hospitalized or have a serious health problem I'm covered....but simple things like prescriptions I don't care about (especially since if it really starts getting expensive, it becomes tax deductible anyways)

[Tommy]

I pay cash
barbara use to be a hygienist

my dentist knows that so i dont get ripped off

most of time she will call the dentist and say he needs this or he doesnt need that

from what ive seen theres a LOT of unnecessary
work done

it seems that a lot of root canals arent really needed

but I guess that like anything else

[CD Smith]

I suppose I was thinking more of the family plan.... because back in my hospital career days I had the option to have any wife I might have and kids included in the plan... it was really a terrific benefits package.

Being that I'm single, you guys are of course correct, it's perfectly fine to just pay cash as you go. I wasn't sure just how expensive dentistry is in the US though, so that's mostly why I brought it up.

But for webmasters who also have a wife and kids to think about, that group plan I was under would be something to have, definitely. I imagine the total yearly dentist bill is vastly different for someone who has 2 or 3 kids.

[spazlabz]

Geesh! now I feel all weird and stuff. I just brush my teeth regularly and try to avoid biting any rocks!!

spaz

[Jim]

Going to the dentist is also covered by our health insurance. The trick to get good inexpensive health insurance is to contact your local chamber of commerce. They usually have a deal where a small business can purchase it directly through them. With all their small business members doing that, they get good prices.

[Greenguy]

Seeeing as it's the wife & 2 kids here with me, we have a dental/medical plan thru a local health care provider under my company name. Of course, the cost is outrageous, but what are you gonna do?

[guitar riff]

Im glad i had dental insurance when my son needed all his wok done i paid 500 for 10k worth of work.

Saved me a huge chunk of change.

[Cleo]

I have no teeth. For some odd reason men seem to really like this.

[SirMoby]

Originally posted by Tommy
it seems that a lot of root canals arent really needed

I broke a tooth in half when I was about 9 years old and for the last 20 years when a dentist tells me that I need a root canal and a crown I move on. The tooth has been capped twice and is perfectly healthy so why do I need to kill it with a root canal?

I pay an extra $20 or so a month to cover the family. It's tax deductable and will cover any major issues. I don't use it for the regular check ups because as already posted, dentists give deep discounts for cash.

[Monkey Spanker]

Originally posted by Cleo
I have no teeth. For some odd reason men seem to really like this.

Gummer!

[CD Smith]

Originally posted by Jim
Going to the dentist is also covered by our health insurance. The trick to get good inexpensive health insurance is to contact your local chamber of commerce. They usually have a deal where a small business can purchase it directly through them. With all their small business members doing that, they get good prices.

NOW you're talking! That should be something a lot of US webmasters take the time to check out. In certain situations I'm sure something like that would save someone a lot of money.

[Jim]

Originally posted by CD Smith
NOW you're talking! That should be something a lot of US webmasters take the time to check out. In certain situations I'm sure something like that would save someone a lot of money.

I think all local Chambers of Commerce do this for it's members. Ours asks for $100/year for dues and then the insurance is about $7-800/ quarter. With all the members together, they get the same prices as a large company buying insurance. When I was first starting out, a friend of mine asked if I was a member and I just laughed. He told me the only reason he was a member was for the insurance.

It would be great if webmasters could get together and do the same thing but, they would all have to live in the same state and probably county. And I know New York State is funny with insurance. All the good deals you get spammed with or even the program ARS was running are not available here.

[HowlingWulf]

I also have a real estate company I use for investing so I qualified into an organization of new england small businesses that get group rates, so I pay $36/mo for dental insurance and $110/mo for health insurance. I think that's very good for US.

[CD Smith]

As a health care worker in a hospital that had 5,000 workers represented by 7 different unions, I was paying about $8 per month for my single person coverage, and those with families were paying around $12 or $15 per month..... for dental coverage. Of course our general medical is free (in the sense that there is no charge to see a doctor, it is taken out of our taxes).


I do miss that dental plan though.

[AcidMaX]

I have Blue Cross currently for $309 a month, on their new personal plan, its only a 70/30 plan as I didnt want to pay $900+ for the wife and I on their group business plan.

For dental we just pay as we go since we live in a small town its pretty cheap. My wife is getting braces right now for $1500 for the entire thing. Braces, retainer, teeth pulled to straighten it out etc. I think thats the cheapest I have ever heard and its basically because we are paying cash and in the middle of nowhere.

Andy

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Jim
I think all local Chambers of Commerce do this for it's members. Ours asks for $100/year for dues and then the insurance is about $7-800/ quarter. With all the members together, they get the same prices as a large company buying insurance. When I was first starting out, a friend of mine asked if I was a member and I just laughed. He told me the only reason he was a member was for the insurance.

It would be great if webmasters could get together and do the same thing but, they would all have to live in the same state and probably county. And I know New York State is funny with insurance. All the good deals you get spammed with or even the program ARS was running are not available here.

Hi Jim...i know something about the insurance industry, i was planning to be an actuary, but ended up here..much better choice.

anyway, seeing an interest in this here i placed a call today to some major insurance companies and spoke with their underwriters. I will now try to put together what i need to come up with a plan to cover all webmasters in Canada and the US.

have a call scheduled tomorrow with some people about it as well. I will post back here.

any companies wanting to help sponsor such a thing can shoot me an email, and we can discuss....preliminary stages right now.

Ill find out more juicy details tomorrow.

[soggy]

Im on my wifes dental plan thru her work. As far as health insurance I am self employed and have it thru a company that writes small businesses.

soggy

[Alphawolf]

Interesting. Porno Webmaster Insurance Plan.

I'm getting my root canal Tuesday. Since it's self pay I asked him if there was anything he could do. I got 50% off and will pay $400. It pays to ask.

[Carly]

I have been looking around as my husband is thinking of giving up his job so that he isn't spending 8 hours there and 8 hours on the computer. We have to have insurance with 2 little ones, and even with his so called great group rate I am finding that we can get something similar in price. You just have to look, look, look. And here in my community they won't issue us a business license because our neighbors are old and won't agree to some freaky porno people next to them, so no break for us in joining the chamber of commerce. The city doesn't have a problem taking my tax money though.

[the New Shemp]

i have wooden teeth...

[CD Smith]

Originally posted by the New Shemp
i have wooden teeth...

I was waiting for this post.

Give Shemp a tack hammer and a wood chisel and he's good to go.

Originally posted by Phoenix
Hi Jim...i know something about the insurance industry, i was planning to be an actuary, but ended up here..much better choice.

anyway, seeing an interest in this here i placed a call today to some major insurance companies and spoke with their underwriters. I will now try to put together what i need to come up with a plan to cover all webmasters in Canada and the US.

have a call scheduled tomorrow with some people about it as well. I will post back here.

any companies wanting to help sponsor such a thing can shoot me an email, and we can discuss....preliminary stages right now.

Ill find out more juicy details tomorrow.

I was waiting for this post as well. Sounds like you're the perfect guy for the job Phoenix.