After hearing about the medical insurance offered by Medicare I was excited to research the other plans available. I heard about the Medicare dental plan and decided to do some research. There is a huge debate on whether this is just a scam or an actual dental plan. I will be covering the services offered on the plan and you can decide for yourself whether this is a scam or is the best dental insurance for seniors on Medicare.
Medicare dental services are offered to the elderly and disabled youth. This plan is part of a larger medical scheme offered by Medicare that consists of many different “parts”. This in particular is called part B. The name states that you have a Medicare dental plan that would cover you for dental emergencies. Unfortunately this is not so simple.
The fine print stipulates a lot of treatments that are not covered in the Medicare dental insurance. It is our job to read the fine print and inform the unsuspecting citizens of the actual coverage they would be receiving. The dental insurance for seniors on Medicare is not all bad, it is just phrased incorrectly.
You would only be covered for extreme surgeries in or around the mouth. Preparation for dentures is one of the procedures, they do not cover dentures. The teeth you just pulled to make way for dentures will be covered but not the dentures themselves; makes no sense to encourage a surgery that will only be done halfway.
No insurance covers cosmetic surgery and is obvious but don’t our senior citizens deserve dentures? How can an insurance company promise full dental insurance when most dental care is at your own cost? The main reason senior citizens join the Medicare dental plan is to receive proper dental care. Dentures hardly count as cosmetic surgery, so why don’t they cover it in the list of Medicare dental services?
Medicare created a list of services offered and a list of dental procedures that will not be performed on a patient. When you land on the Medicare website what you see is a list of infinite possibilities for our elderly and disabled. As you read on the list gets smaller and smaller. Medicare dental schemes do not maintain the health of your teeth either. This seems very impractical, if we could prevent the decay of the patient’s teeth would it not ensure that less claims would be made? Medicare does have other plans that make sense but I do not see how the dental plan helps our elderly.
What they do cover though is hospitalization from teeth infections. This hardly ever happens and is also covered in part A. Each part has its own pro’s and con’s but part B seems to just be a con. Everything that is covered in this plan is also covered elsewhere in a different plan. It would be easier to take multiple plans that cover you for more than just this plan.
I decided that there can’t only be negative comments about the plan and decided to ask some of my fellow Americans for advice on how to proceed. I interviewed a total of twenty elderly and disabled youngsters who had taken part B in the hopes of receiving dental insurance. The vote was unanimous and unfortunately did not help for me in my quest for positivity. Leaving the last patient I felt forlorn and gloomy, I needed a break through. One Medical scheme could not disappoint like this one, surely?
I tried Medicare themselves and ended my day on a positive note. The services they offer are performed by doctors that are registered or recognised by Medicare and include surgery to remove tumours or fix fractures in the jaw. Cancer is one of the top killers in America with over 30% of the population either beating the disease or dying from it, Medicare decided to include treatment for mouth/ jaw cancer related cases in the plan.
Any medical bills that you incur from such surgeries will also be covered by Medicare but is limited to certain procedures again. Any observation needed because of an infection or injury to the mouth will be covered but no other after surgery services will be paid for. If observations for infection are covered in the plan surely they could have covered regular check-ups in the plan?
If you undergo facial reconstruction, only a part of the money will be covered and will only be allowed if the surgery was done to the jaw or mouth. Medicare does cover wiring the mouth for very bad breaks in the jaw. That is important as our elderly are frail (well most of them anyway, the others just won’t admit it) and are more likely to fall.
There is a list of procedures that you can acquire from Medicare of you are interested in the dental plan. The cost of the plan is dependent on your situation and is calculated on the total procedures, there is a monthly premium that is required from members on the plan. I believe this “dental insurance” is more of a surgery plan than dental care. Maintaining dental hygiene should be on the top of their list, instead it is not even covered by Medicare.
The elderly and disabled need coverage that supports them, this dental plan is for extreme cases that rarely take place. We need dental cover that is flexible and allows for check-ups and keeps our teeth strong. Instead this plan covers facial reconstruction and tumour removal, I am not saying that we don’t need it but maybe they could change the name to something more suitable. Dental insurance cannot be used to describe this plan and is poorly marketed, promising our citizens amazing dental insurance and delivering dental surgery insurance instead. Medicare is one of the best medical insurance companies available to the underprivileged it’s just unfortunate that this plan has been allowed to mislead them so much.