Monthly Medical Budget (incl. Medicare) for Retired Couple?

[gentlearts]

Since the main focus seems to be dental and eye. My retired DH works at a home improvement store. They have good eye and dental coverage for part time employees.
My big beef is about hearing aids. I could use some help there, but until there is any, I'll just continue saying, "what?"

[Nightengale212]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

I think you've got good points there. From what I've seen when I looked for individual dental plans after retirement, my impression was that the independent plans had fairly low annual limits for coverage, and wouldn't go far if at all for covering things like bridges, implants, or even crowns. We're eleigible for the dental plans offered for federal employees (my husband is a federal retiree) and some of those are pretty good- there's one I noted with BC/BS that had a maximum coverage amount of $15,000 annually, through a high option policy for about $100 and change monthly for self plus one coverage. That's the best one I've seen. Most of the others are much lower in their annual limits. I'd figure that most retirees have access to policies that don't offer that much coverage, so even with most dental insurance, expenses beyond the annual limits come out of retirees'pockets and can add up to a pretty penny

But, with dental insurance, we've gambled that we won't need all that expensive dental work and paying premiums for coverage we assume we won't use. So we pay out of pocket for dental work, and you're right, there's no predicting what will come up.
I'm still debating with my husband about getting that dental coverage during the next open season, but it's not settled either way at this point.

I am a Federal employee and have MetLife PPO High self + 1 and pay biweekly $51,11 and monthly would be $110.74. The FEPBlue PPO High dental coverage self + 1 is $116.46 a month. If you opt to pick up an insurance the next open season do take a look at the MetLife plan because it pays annually up to $12,000 per covered individual where the FEPBlue plan's premium is a few dollars more but has a lower annual coverage amount.

My husband and I both have had major dental work since having MetLife coverage and glad we did because it ended up paying 1/2 for an $8,000 bridge for my husband and 1/2 of my $10,000 cost for laser periodontal surgery. Fortunately our dental work did not happen in the same year even with our insurance picking of 1/2. With having crowns and bridges this usually means at some point in the future those will need to be replaced and this is the reason we will continue with our dental insurance in retirement.

Also, if you have Federal Standard BC/BS it picks up a small amount of dental. And if you additionally pick up dental coverage BC/BS is the first payer source so you will need to inform your dentist office of this since they will have to first submit a claim to BC/BS, and after they pay their portion of the claim it is then submitted to your dental insurer.