Dental Insurance Companies

In picking the right dental insurance plan, it is very important to go to a reliable dental insurance company. Below we look at some of the best dental insurance companies in the US and UK. What I recommend is that you go to a few of these, find a policy that fills your needs, then compare them to each other.

US

Aetna

Aetna is one of the biggest dental and health insurance companies. They have the largest nation wide network of approved dentists. So if you are looking for a HMO, start with them.

They have traditional policies tailored for many segments of society. They also have policies with a high level of customization available.

DentalPlans.com : Patriot Plan

This company's one plan, the Patriot Plan is worth mentioning. It is $104.95 per year for individuals and as low as $159.95 for families. Now you don't get that much cover for so little, but if you are on a tight budget and looking for minimal cover the you might want to look at this plan.

Metlife

Metlife also has some high quality plans. Metlife is a large insurance industry player with life, home, auto ... insurance available. So if you want to do all your insurance through one company for simplicity, Metlife might be the company for you.

EHealthInsurance

EHealthInsurance is a large health insurance company with a few good speciality dental plans. They have indemnity as well as PPO dental insurance available. Their quotes are competitive so worth having a look at their site.

UK

Most people in the UK use NHS dentists. If you are, on the NHS, you may want dental insurance for the part of your dental fees that are not covered by them. If for whatever reason, you prefer a private dentist, the companies below will also insure you against that.

Tesco

Tesco is well known for high quality and low cost products. They have expanded into insurance and their policies are low cost and simple to use.

Money Supermarket

Money Supermarket is a insurance aggregator site. This means that they take your details, then based on that they suggest a few policies. You read the fine print on those policies and pick the best one.

Dental Insurance Reviews

If you are able to get dental insurance through your employer, that is probably the best deal you are going to get. Normally your employer will pay part of the plan and you will pay the rest. The insurance company will give your employer a discount because they are buying insurance for a group of people. In the US, as in most other countries, you will not have to pay income tax on the part of the insurance which is paid by your employer(up to a certain limit).

In some countries there are dental plans, which are run by the state. If your employer doesn't have a dental insurance group plan. The state run plan may be the best value for your money.

Types of Dental plans

Dental indemnity plan: This is a traditional dental plan. In it you can go to any dentist you want. You go to the dentist and then you claim a percentage of the dentist's fee back from the insurance company afterwards.

Direct Reimbursement Plan: This plan is the same as a indemnity plan, but instead of claiming the money from the insurance company, you claim it from your employer. They then claim the money back from the insurer. This is better for many because then you get your money back faster.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): With PPO plans you are limited to using a list of approved dentists. The insurance company will have arranged low fees for procedures with these dentists. With PPO plans if you go outside the lists of approved dentists, you will be reimbursed a smaller percentage of the cost.

Health Maintenance Organization(HMO): HMO and PPO insurance is very similar. The difference being that if you go outside the HMO approved dentist list, you will have to pay the full fee yourself.

With HMO dentists, the dentist has to charge set fee for a procedure. Where with PPO dentist, the dentist can charge what they like.

Self-Insurance Plan: With Self-insurance plans your don't pick a dentist, the insurance company assigns a dentist to you.

Important terms

Usual Custom Reasonable(UCR): The insurance company will have a list of procedures with the UCR rate for those procedures. Depending on your policy the insurance company may only cover a percentage of the UCR for any given procedure.

Cosmetic Dentistry: These are procedures such as orthodontics, veneers and teeth whitening. These procedures are not covered under most policies.

Supplementary dental insurance: This means you buy your insurance directly from the insurer and not through a group or employer.

If you are looking for a good dental plan, I suggest you read dental insurance companies.

Travel insurance reviews

I will try to explain the basics of travel insurance cover and then point you towards some reliable travel insurance companies.

The cheapest and easiest place to find reliable travel insurance is online. It is much cheaper than insuring though a travel agent as they will routinely charge up to 100% commission on a travel insurance quote. Online you can complete a few pages, pay with your credit card and you are ready to go. Also you have the added benefit of having access to your policy details anytime online.

Types of travel insurance

The two main types are annual and single trip insurance. If you travel a lot annual insurance will work out cheaper and if you only need cover once or twice a year, I recommend single trip cover. Another important consideration is where you are traveling to. If you stay in your own country it will be much cheaper than if you go abroad.

Here is a quick tip: Buying travel insurance for your family is cheaper than doing so for each member separately.

What travel insurance covers

You need to look for your policy, policy summary and/or schedule of benefits documents on the site. This will tell you how much of what is covered under the different policies.

Not all policies cover the same risks. Below we look at some of the most important ones that most insurance companies will cover, as standard or as an optional extra.

Medical expenses: Medical expenses is the most important part of travel insurance. Because, your medical cover probably doesn't cover any expenses you incur outside your country.

Overseas medical bills can mount really quickly. I recommend you pick a policy with at least $1 million of medical cover.

Cancellation/Interruption: If you are unable to take advantage of whole vacation you are likely to face cancellation fees, this part of the policy covers you for up to a certain amount.

Loss/delay of baggage and documents: We have all had airlines lose our baggage. This covers costs linked to the loss or delay of these items.

Accidental death or dismemberment benefit: This is a payment made in case you die or are seriously injured.

Winter sports cover(optional): This is usually an optional extra which will cover your equipment and your self for a skiing or snowboarding vacation.

Golf cover(optional): This is usually an optional extra with business travel. It covers your golfing equipment from damage and theft.

Some travel insurance sites:
TravelSafe
Travel Guard
Travel Ex
MH Ross

You should really submit your details to a few of these and see who has the best package. If you are lazy you can try a comparison engine like SquareMouth. They take your details and submit it to several web sites, then they return the best quotes for you to pick from.