Health Insurance -
Dental insurance options - 12/06/2008
|
As many dentists are going off opening private practices the costs of treatments soars, which is then making a growing number of people taking out insurance policies on their teeth.
These days a standard filling can cost anything into three figures in many UK dental surgeries and even a routine yearly check-up on the NHS can hurt your bank balance. The huge mounting costs are leading to a growing number of people to neglect their oral health care, as almost a third of 1,000 adults who had participated in a survey this year have admitted to not visiting a dentist in over 2 years!
The survey also found that a fifth of them had decided not to have dental work that was recommended by dentists due to the large costs involved, according to Dentale, the dental firm who had the commissioned the survey to be carried out estimate that in the UK there have been around 1.29 million people who have had dental treatment undertaken outside of the UK because it is cheaper to get the work done abroad.
Dental tourism is experiencing a similar boom to cosmetic surgery tourism. Because for many leaving the UK for treatment is more economical, even after travel costs are taken into account. This seems to be rather tragic as the UK should provide cheap oral health care for its residents.
However for those who are looking to cut the cost of more routine treatment closer to home, taking out insurance is now the becoming the popular way for cheap oral health.
"NHS funding is going south in a big way -- the number of NHS dentists is dropping and access to dental work from the NHS is diminishing all the time," says Mike Izzard, chairman of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII).
With bleak news from the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries, consumers are left to ask themselves what other options are there out there for them?
One of those options is stand alone insurance, stand alone insurance is offered by many firms and they usually involve contributions towards routine treatment, dental emergencies and serious problems.
Companies in the dental insurance market include Dencover (underwritten by Cardiff Pinnacle), Western Provident Association (WPA) and Tesco Personal Finance, which branched into the dental cover market last year.
The premiums are based on the individuals’ age and the prices can vary, as they range from around £7 per month to almost £20. The benefits vary from one plan to another, but in general the more you pay, the more your insurer will pay out.
Claims can generally not be made until the policy has been held for three to six months. After that, policies will pay out for treatment at whichever dentist you choose to visit.
Patients usually have to pay for the cost themselves first then reclaim the money back from their insurance company.
The most basic and cheapest policies tend to cover only emergency and non-emergency treatment, but not regular routine checkups.
Others have more generous benefits, but most policies have set maximum payouts.
There are some policies that will refund a percentage of the cost of general dental treatment, including routine work for example you could receive 75% of the total cost back.
However with all these insurance policies, could dental insurance be one of those unnecessary ones? As oral healthcare for everyone in the UK should be standard practice? With NHS dentists dwindling, surely the NHS should be finding ways to tempt dentists to remain within the NHS rather than going private?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Health Insurance. What is health insurance? How much does health insurance cost? What types of...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|