Covered California, the State Health Insurance Exchange in California announced recently the Dental Health Insurance Plans for children.
California’s children will get expanded opportunities for better dental health, thanks to Covered California’s offerings of children’s dental insurance plans.
The plans are for children up to 19-years-old. Purchase of the children’s dental insurance plan is not required. However, the plans offer comprehensive child dental coverage, particularly important for consumers of child-only coverage and family plans.
The participating dental insurance plans are:
- Anthem Blue Cross of California
- Blue Shield of California
- Delta Dental of California
- Health Net
- LIBERTY Dental Plan of California
- Premier Access Dental and Vision
There are three different product types available, depending on where the child lives. The Dental Preferred Provider Organization (DPPO) product offers a wide variety of provider choice within a network of participating dentists and coverage for some out-of-network services. The Dental Exclusive Provider Organization (DEPO) works like a DPPO but does not provide coverage for services provided by dentists outside the network. The Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO) limits coverage to services provided by a dentist within a network and generally requires a referral to be seen by a specialist.
Covered California children’s dental insurance plans feature standard copayments, deductibles and coinsurance requirements. Dental plans come in two actuarial value options: 85 percent, which features higher premiums but lower average out-of-pocket costs; and a 70 percent value plan with lower premiums and higher average out-of-pocket costs. An actuarial value is the percentage of total average costs for benefits that a dental plan will cover.
These premiums are for “stand-alone” plans, insurance products that can be purchased by themselves to cover a specific service. Stand-alone rates are not included for Health Net Dental, because the company is only offering children’s dental coverage bundled with its health insurance plans.
Dental insurance plans must follow Covered California standard benefit designs. Standardizing benefits ensures that the selected plans define what the consumers get and limit the consumer’s out-of-pocket costs.
The rates in Los Angeles County are for a Dental HMO per child around $ 10 and for a Dental PPO plan as low as $20 with Blue Shield and as high as $ 39 with Delta Dental.
These are welcome news that Dental Insurance for children is easily accessible through the state exchange, Solid Health Insurance Services is keeping you updated of the newest information on health insurance in California.