Dental Insurance

Group Dental Insurance for Small Businesses

Buying group dental insurance is a smart move for small business owners. Affordable small business dental insurance is readily available -- these days, you can even buy dental insurance online. Studies show dental insurance is an excellent recruitment tool for small businesses.

Offering dental insurance to your employees can aid in the recruitment and retention of employees.

Studies indicate that benefit extras like dental insurance plans pull in and keep high-quality employees. If you don't offer dental insurance for small business employees at your shop and your competitor does, chances are that, everything else being equal, prospective employees will choose your competitor's shop over yours.

What percentage of small businesses offer dental insurance? A recent study found that 83% of small businesses that offer health insurance also provide dental insurance to their employees.

So if hiring good employees is important to you, it may be time to purchase small business group dental insurance and add a new item to your list of employee benefits.

If you are considering buying group dental insurance for a small business, there's some good news. In contrast to small business health insurance, buying group dental insurance is surprisingly affordable.

While medical insurance offers protection against worst-case health scenarios that can be exorbitantly expensive, the financial costs of dental treatment are not catastrophic in nature.

Health problems are a major contributor to bankruptcy filings in America, but it's a rare situation where dental problems will lead an individual on the path to financial ruin. In fact, dental healthcare costs amount to only 5% of the costs of total healthcare costs. That makes for affordable dental insurance plans.

At the same time, dental insurance may be used more frequently than medical insurance. Everyone needs and will utilize dental care. As such, the dental needs of a group dental insurance plan are highly predictable. That makes dental insurance a tricky business for insurance companies.

If they know that the average employee will require $500 in dental treatment per year, then they need to charge, say, $700 for the dental insurance or else they will lose money. If the employee knows that they will likely have $500 in dental insurance claims, why would they pay $700? A rational individual wouldn't pay the extra cost, but if the company is paying for dental insurance, or is matching 50% of the premium costs, then of course it makes sense to opt in for dental insurance.

At first glance, dental insurance plans don't appear to make economic sense. Wouldn't the company be better off just self-administering its dental insurance plan? That would allow the company to keep the profits that the insurance company would otherwise get.

The answer is that many companies do self-fund and self-administer their dental insurance. However, it's a pain. For small business owners who want to offer dental insurance, administering an insurance plan internally adds to administrative headaches.

Delegating that responsibility to a dental insurance company makes a lot of sense, as long as the costs of dental insurance are reasonable. As it turns out, there's healthy competition in the market for small business dental insurance plans and that does keep costs low. You can go to a site like ehealthinsurance and immediately get many competing bids for dental insurance.

So what does dental insurance cost? How much does a company have to pay for a good dental insurance plan?

The costs for group dental insurance will vary, depending on number or employees, the plan specifications, employee contribution, and the cost limitations you specify. Unfortunately, buying group dental insurance isn't like buying a can of Coca-cola. There are a million different ways to skin the cat, and you'll need to take the time to understand all the different options.

Again, the best way to get started is to get dental insurance price quotes from sites like ehealthinsurance because you'll be able to shop very efficiently. Another good approach is to find a local insurance broker that you trust and get their assistance in selecting a dental insurance plan.

Choosing a dental insurance plan requires a bit of effort, but it's worth it. Dental benefits are consistently cited as one of the most sought after employee benefits. If you need to attract good employees to do well in your business, not offering dental insurance to employees could be a big mistake.

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