UGH. My Teeth are KILLING ME
So this week, some congressmen decided to introduce some legislation for dental heath care for Medicare patients, particularly through S-CHIP. That’s wonderful. Unfortunately, my dental plan really sucks. If I am going to get any more work done, I am going to have to find another job for dental insurance.
You think I am kidding, but I just got denied about $3000 in charges from the dental insurer. So I have to pay about $2900.00. But I have depleted all of my savings and will have to break all of my CD’s. That’s what an emergency fund is for, right?
Um, I’m not so sure. I’ve been a bit of a spendthrift this summer and I am going to have to chalk up the money from somehwere. A goodly portion of it will come out of my FSA funds, luckily. But I only have about $900 left since the initial $3K also came out of FSA. The total surgery was about $6K this year. I am saving the maximum $5K in my Medical Flexible Spending Account, but I have some other stuff like eyeglasses that also deplete those funds.
I have to do some serious scrambling here. I will be fine. I just shake my fist at myself and remind myself that I shouldn’t have slacked off on the saving. I think I’m going to have to tell my mom that she can’t have my bonus next year for her house project. The more I think about it, the more I want to keep the money as an emergency fund.
But the good news is that if I decide to skip my wishes for laser eye surgery, I won’t have to save $5K in FSA next year. *sigh* Forgoing my wish to have all my major medical conditions permanently resolved really stinks, but I am going to have to wait two more years. Crud. If I do that, the surgery no longer becomes cost effective and I’ll have to ride around with prescription eyewear.
Remember kids: FLOSS. FLOSS. FLOSS.
paidtwice wrote:
ugh that stinks.
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
Dean J wrote:
Ask the dentist if they’ll do a payment plan, or similar, or see if the insurance company will accept payments. They might botch the interest rate in your favor. Worth checking.
And Lasik should perhaps go beyond considerations of cost effectiveness, or you should take a loan and do it before the current glasses break. Link to past post?
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
My Road to Wealth wrote:
Ugggggg, I heard you. I just paid 1300 for fixing teeth too. Now our FSA is going down really fast!
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 2:57 pm | Permalink
Ms. M&P wrote:
This issue really upsets me and it’s one I actually work on occasionally in my professional life. I’m really sorry that your dental insurance doesn’t cover more. I’ve often heard it said that there is no such thing as true “dental insurance”, meaning that there are very few dental plans worth their money. Apparently, when health insurance was just starting up in the U.S., dental was thought to be in a separate category as traditional health care. Obviously, that was stupid because anyone with a toothache can tell you that your whole body suffers…anyway, it’s just a long road in our country before dental care will be integrated into everyone’s health insurance. In the meantime, you just have to shop around for the best price. As a side note, I know of a dentist in the DC area who is pretty cheap if you pay out of pocket. I haven’t been to him but my friends have and they say he’s good. If you are interested in his info and you need him, feel free to shoot me an email!
Thanks for the post. I’m all fired up about this now!
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 8:32 pm | Permalink
Single Ma wrote:
My heart goes out to you. I’ve been putting off dental care for years. My ins only covers basic preventative care, so I know I’ll go broke. For now, I get bi-annual cleanings but that’s it.
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 8:46 pm | Permalink
PiggyBankBlues wrote:
i vote for keeping the emergency fund, ’cause when it rains, it pours
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 9:41 pm | Permalink
Sistah Ant wrote:
I hope your teeth feel better soon!
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 9:15 am | Permalink
HC wrote:
I’ve been really lucky with my dental care, but this sounds just awful.
Why did the insurer deny your claims? For $3K, I’d appeal.
And a payment plan sounds good to me. Plenty of offices will do that.
Good luck.
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
TN wrote:
An idea is to try to spread out the payments so that you can use 2008 FSA toward this payment. That means you’ll be tight for 2008 FSA, but you can probably wait on lasik.
Posted on 19-Sep-07 at 3:07 am | Permalink