Nsurance Info
Popularity of Dental Insurance
The benefits of dental insurance coverage
have been further stressed upon by the popular icons on
the television, who always seem to have flashing white
flawless teeth. These teeth are a result of care,
expensive dental care and thus need for expensive group
dental insurance plans provided by insurance companies
that reducing in number by the day.
Group dental insurance plans have been
growing rapidly placed in the niche market of employee
benefit programs. A few years back, dental insurance was a
non-descript part of employee benefit programs and very
simple to plan and execute. Most plans used were for full
coverage of preventive care and cleaning, 80% coverage for
basic restoration and 50% coverage for major restorative
services like crowns and bridges.
Despite advice many employees never visited
their dentists resulting in the overall cost of insurance
being low and stable compared to general health benefit
plans which rose year after year. For many years dental
insurance was a simple rider for employers who took it
major plans from big insurance companies.
The last few years saw a spurt in
television advertising and as the smiles brightened on the
idiot box, the importance of whiter smiles and straighter
teeth became apparent and people started taking more
interest in dental care. This in turn saw a spurt in rise
of dental insurance premiums almost at the rate of 7-10% a
year. This rate is significant and big employers started
looking at it with a bigger eye.
This tells on the bottom-line of the
company since the employee benefit expenses are going up
due to this rise. The dental insurance costs about 10% of
the total employee benefits for a corporate today. So the
rise in premium year after year, pushes the total employee
benefit expenses 1% higher year after year.
"Employers aren't paying that much
attention yet, but considering the way dental plans are
evolving, they should," says Donald S. Mayes, dental plan
auditor and consultant from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Dental
Insurance plans, as a part of employment package have also
increased in popularity. So big companies, to recruit and
retain their employees cannot do away with these plans; at
the same time have to watch the cost going upward. A Catch
22 decision is awaited.
