Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Military Life and Issues
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 02-04-2010, 10:36 AM
 
664 posts, read 1,942,624 times
Reputation: 239

Advertisements

Hey guys,

I was wondering from those of you were that retired or got out, how does United Concorida stack up against civilian dental ins companies? As far as price and what they cover.

Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-04-2010, 10:53 AM
 
Location: Hawaii
1,707 posts, read 7,021,620 times
Reputation: 1076
I don't know if it varies by region but my military retired dental plan is through Delta Dental.

Actually in thinking about it the coverages are the same as active duty dependants dental insurance. I don't know how it compares to civilian insurance plans.

I do know there is a window after retiring to elect the insurance otherwise there is a one year waiting period for certain coverages.

On a different note the retiring military person has 90 days after retirement date to seek free dental care from the VA to fix any outstanding issues not corrected while on active duty.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-04-2010, 11:19 AM
 
66 posts, read 348,749 times
Reputation: 175
I had the opportunity to take the insurance through Tricare, my company, or my "union" so I did a lot of comparing. Even though it was all the exact same company, the prices and coverages were much different - make sure to compare apples to apples - take into account monthly amount plus maximum they'll pay for certain procedures and how often you're allowed cleanings even differed.

The military Tricare version was the MOST expensive by quite a bit, but had higher coverage than through my employer.

My employer version was cheaper, but also had lower maximum percentages they'd cover.

My "union" (several employees banding together for a small group rate through a local agent) was slightly less than the employer AND higher coverage, (same as Tricare but cheaper).

After 1 year in Tricare and 2 years with the union plan, I went with yet another option you might consider; NONE OF THE ABOVE!

If you don't have a lot of dental problems just forget it and pay as you go. Yes, it's a little risky and in fact almost immediately after dropping the insurance, my wife needed a crown and my son broke his front tooth in half. But guess what? Even after all that, plus our normal cleanings I still saved over $250 over what the premiums were!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-04-2010, 11:46 AM
 
Location: Aurora, Colorado
2,212 posts, read 5,142,439 times
Reputation: 2371
When my husband retired, we were absolutely elated that we had TriCare as our medical insurance but after doing some research opted not to take the military retiree dental insurance. From those we spoke with, we didn't find one person that thought it was worth the price compared to what it covered. If you don't have kids, however, and you and your spouse don't have dental issues, it might be worth looking into. If you foresee dental issues in the future, you should probably look elsewhere.

We opted for the most expensive dental insurance plan that was offered at my husband's civilian job. It costs $68 per month for a family of 4 but covers 90% of dental costs in addition to semiannual cleanings and the standard stuff (x-rays, fluoride, etc). At first I thought that $68 was pretty expensive, but a crown will cost you around $450 per tooth and cavities are expensive too. My daughter broke a tooth on a piece of Halloween candy 2 years ago and not only did we have to have the tooth removed, but they had to put in a spacer so that the other teeth wouldn't crowd the space of the permanent tooth (which won't come in for another 4 years). The total for that bill was $1250. Wow. Thank God we only had to pay 10%. We have two young kids so while we try and take care of their teeth the best we can, it was worth it to us to pay extra so that we didn't get wiped out in an emergency.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-04-2010, 11:59 AM
 
Location: San Antonio
1,287 posts, read 3,809,570 times
Reputation: 928
The dental insurance through the military is much more expensive, definitely shop around.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Military Life and Issues

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top