Dental Insurance Disscusion

Norfolk_Jim · 3 April 2009 at 1:00PM

Losinmoney wrote: »

Has anyone else had a letter from Tesco on annual renewal of Dental Cover? It drastically cuts the cover and the premium is up £3 a month from £16.95 a month to £19.95 a month..

Previously could claim £200 for routine treatments, reduced to £125

Annual limit for remedial/restorative treatment reduced from £2000 to £1000, and a limit of £500 per person per year for crowns and bridges. For this treatment as a private patient, Tesco now pay 50% instead of 80% of the total overall cost

They are offering a No Claims Discount if I don't claim, but not claiming defeats the object!

Shall I just get all my teeth pulled out? I'm 55, with all my own teeth!

HSA did similarly this year - claimable amount down from 75% to 50% and most of the rest down too but premiums up. I expect these policies are costing them more than they expected. Mine did, in the first year it racked up something like 4500 or more for the whole family, mainly on the wife.

terryfow · 5 April 2009 at 5:01PM

I had a preliminary warning letter that my plan is due for renewal but no premiums mentioned. Currently £16.95, due for renewal May. I await with bated breath :-) Looked up Martins article, FYI, BUPA no longer do Dental insurance.

Losinmoney · 6 April 2009 at 10:32AM

There are a few things to consider, I think.
1. There is the cost of routine treatment. My dentist is private only and I see him once every 9 months and the hygienist once every 4 months. I have been claiming the cost of this back from Tesco
2. Accidents. Without any cover, as Toothsmith points out, paying for my teeth to be put right if I were unfortunate enough to have an accident could be very costly and would be down to me. I think it would be useful to have some form of safety net (cheap!) accident cover
3. Other treatment like crowns or bridges. Again, this could be costly and relatively occasional. It may or may not be useful to have cover for this, depending on the state of my teeth

And the cover offered differs. Tesco would pay towards crowns, whereas Denplan do not. Cost of crowns if you are a Denplan patient is down to you. Also, my dentist does not offer Denplan and I don't want to leave him. You build up a relationship of trust with your dentist! It's a minefield of comparison work, and it is hard to be sure you are comparing like with like. Taking the car insurance comparison, your car policy does not offer to cover you for routine servicing and MOTs. It covers accidents, fire and theft, damage to third parties.

Losinmoney · 6 April 2009 at 10:40AM

Just a further thought - I have my hair cut as a matter of routine every 6 or 7 weeks and pay for this myself. It would not occur to me to insure for the cost, but it has to be done. Yet when it comes to a visit to the dentist and the hygienist that also has to be done, I have choices - Denplan to cover routine visits and emergencies, or HSA to claim back part of the costs of routine treatment but not emergencies, or Tesco to cover some part of routine visits costs plus a limited amount for extra costs - not sure if Tesco cover accidents, will reread their letter!

Just another thought - I like the HSA concept, but I would not want any of the treatments they cover except eyes and teeth.

lou66_2 · 6 April 2009 at 10:59AM

HI
Just to say the maxium for NHS treatment is £198.00 which covers most tretament. However there is a form called HC1.HC2. Which is for pepole on low incomes, this will cover most the cost of cost or a certain part at least.You can get this from your local dental surgery or the post office

Toothsmith · 6 April 2009 at 11:25AM

Losinmoney wrote: »

And the cover offered differs. Tesco would pay towards crowns, whereas Denplan do not. Cost of crowns if you are a Denplan patient is down to you. Also, my dentist does not offer Denplan and I don't want to leave him. You build up a relationship of trust with your dentist! It's a minefield of comparison work, and it is hard to be sure you are comparing like with like.

Very true, it is a minefield.

With Denplan, it depends which Denplan product you're on.

Denplan Care covers the dentist's time in treatment you, and any materials he uses. It doesn't cover LAB FEES for crowns.

So - if you weren't on Denplan, a crown might cost you £3-500+ depending on the type of crown, on Denplan, it would cost you how much the technician charged to make the crown, so the bill would be £50-£200 depending on the crown. Quite a substancial saving.

Denplan Essentials is a different product, and for your monthly fee (lower than Denplan Care) you get a set amount of treatment included - usually a couple of check ups, and a couple of hygienist visits, but it varies due to fee level, and what you agree with your dentist.

Any treatment above and beyond your agreement is charged for, but usually at the dentist's private fee rate minus a certain %age.

Both products have an insurance element that cover out-of-hours emergencies, dental accidents and other stuff like oral cancer cover, and a hospital cash arrangement if dental problems require a stay in hospital.

As Losinmoney says though, it's more important to get a dentist your comfortable with, and go with the arrangements they prefer than to get a dentist on the basis of the schemes they support.

Mauddib · 8 May 2009 at 12:01PM

Losinmoney wrote: »

Has anyone else had a letter from Tesco on annual renewal of Dental Cover? It drastically cuts the cover and the premium is up £3 a month from £16.95 a month to £19.95 a month..

Previously could claim £200 for routine treatments, reduced to £125

Annual limit for remedial/restorative treatment reduced from £2000 to £1000, and a limit of £500 per person per year for crowns and bridges. For this treatment as a private patient, Tesco now pay 50% instead of 80% of the total overall cost

They are offering a No Claims Discount if I don't claim, but not claiming defeats the object!

Shall I just get all my teeth pulled out? I'm 55, with all my own teeth!

Reply to message#31 by Losinmoney: Yes, I have just had exactly the same letter. My premium is going up from £37.95 per month (wife & son included) to £59.95, and increase of over 57%!!! And at the same time, the cover is being drastically reduced as you said. Maybe Tesco is looking to pull out of this market. I shall be looking around for another policy, because I think Tesco are taking the ....

Losinmoney · 8 May 2009 at 5:07PM

Mauddib wrote: »

Reply to message#31 by Losinmoney: Yes, I have just had exactly the same letter. My premium is going up from £37.95 per month (wife & son included) to £59.95, and increase of over 57%!!! And at the same time, the cover is being drastically reduced as you said. Maybe Tesco is looking to pull out of this market. I shall be looking around for another policy, because I think Tesco are taking the ....

If you find a better route, let us know, would you? I have renewed with Tesco as the dentist has confirmed I've got a new crown coming up. Even drastically reduced cover is better than none. But I'm keeping an eye on it.

PMIExpert · 21 May 2009 at 8:47PM

Hi all, I actually used to work for a medical/dental insurer and now advise companies on their employee benefits.

I don't know if it's an option for you but if you qualify for a company scheme or could persuade your employer to take one out you may well see an improvement in cost and cover levels.

You will often find that on corporate policies, pre-existing conditions are covered and you can start claiming immediately. There are range of cover levels to choose from but even the top of the range plans tend to be around £25 a month (lowest level sub £10) and the cover levels are very comprehensive. You normally require 3 employees to be covered to qualify for a group policy.

I have a company policy with CIGNA on their Pearl Plan (second most comprehensive) for the wife and I. It's about £20 a month each but it does cover 100% of our Dental costs with our private Dentist. e.g we can claim for 2 routine check ups a year each and they will reimburse up to £36 each time, which is plenty for us.

My more limited experience of individual plans has been that they don't offer anything like as good value for money.

ourkid · 24 May 2009 at 3:02PM

Hey all, Im just after some advice/guidance really. I have a phobia of the dentist, i have only gone for 2 check ups in the last 10 years and luckily my teeth are fine but i am aware that at somepoint i will require work done, so am thinkin about getting some private dental cover. Basically i just wanted to know if its possible to gat a plan where should i require work i would be able to have it done under general anesthetic?? Sounds silly i know but its the only way id be able to face it!!
Cheers in advance for any help!

Dental Insurance Disscusion

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