There’s some good advice that can be given to people who are very close to retirement. Take care of any dental work that needs to be done. Use your insurance to the best of its ability. You may be asking “Why?” The truth is that medicare does not cover much when it comes to standard dentistry like regular checkups.
There are some cases when a retired senior is able to use previous insurance to cover some of their expenses. However, the truth is that many seniors are paying for all of their dental treatments out of pocket! This is potentially thousands of dollars being spent unexpectedly out of pocket. The average cost of a crown for someone living in New York is around $2,500. There’s not many retirees who want to be shelling out that kind of money for something. Approximately 40% of people over age 65 struggle with their oral health.
So what are people to do? Medicare has long been the option that many seniors turn to as their health coverage. Medicare has been there for many people in their time of need and it was hoped that it would continue to be the foundational insurance for people moving forward. Thankfully, there is a movement that Medicare should start to include far more oral coverage.
Until that time however, there are additional medicare dental health plans. Most of these plans are reasonable. They can be purchased before retirement to pay for it during retirement. Many prep plans will cost as little as $15 per month.
There are groups looking to get dental work added to medicare. The Center for Medicare Advocacy is a charity organization that works to help people who have had medicare claims denied and other issues with medicare. They continue to work to get dental insurance made essential because of the benefits it has to an overall person’s health.
