Dental Work Can Be Expensive. What Financing Options Are Available?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Why are millions of Americans skipping the dentist due to cost?
Here's your money briefing for Thursday, November 11th. I'm Trina Neri for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whalen. Big medical bills can be hard to pay for, and that can also include dental expenses.
How does dental insurance fall short for expensive procedures?
Dental insurance is available, but may not cover the full cost.
So dental insurance isn't really insurance. It's kind of just more of like a prepaid benefit. It's a discount that's basically what you're paying for.
So how can you cover the cost of those pricey dental procedures? We'll talk with our banking and consumer finance reporter, Orla McCaffrey, about some financing options that are available and the risks that come with them. That's after the break.
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What real-life example shows people turning to medical financing?
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Millions of Americans are skipping the dentist. It's not necessarily because they're scared of those sharp tools, but because of the potential for getting hit with a pricey bill. Even some people who have dental insurance are digging into their savings or taking out personal loans to pay for dental care. WSJ Banking and Consumer Finance reporter Orla McCaffrey is here to explain why that is and some financing options that are available. Hi, Orla. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Orla, can you break this down for us? If people have dental insurance already, why can't they afford dental care costs?
Right. So dental insurance isn't really insurance. It's kind of just more of like a prepaid benefit. It's a discount. That's basically what you're paying for. And that's because dental plans have caps on how much they will cover. So it's $1,000 or $2,000 a year. And I think we all know that dental work often costs more than that. So you can't really think of dental insurance the same way you think of medical insurance.
And you've spoken with some people who are looking for ways of paying for dental care, and they found a potential financial solution. What can you tell us about that?
Why are lenders and BNPL companies targeting dental and medical costs?
One of the people I spoke to was Linda Stultz, who is from Northern California. She's 72, and she actually does have some dental benefits under Medicare Advantage, but she wasn't able to find anyone near her that would take those benefits, any dentists. So she found CareCredit, which is a company that basically lends people money to get dental work done, to cover medical expenses, to cover vet bills. And if they can pay it off in a given amount of time, six, 12, 24 months, and they don't pay any interest. If they can't, then they pay a pretty high APR, about 27% in Linda's case. So that's the option she went with because she had no other way to afford dental work. And that seems like it's an option more Americans will have to consider because insurance just doesn't cover things.
Now, if this wasn't an option, how was Linda going to pay for that dental work?
If she hadn't found out about CareCredit, she initially found out about it, she was taking her cat to the vet. If she hadn't done it, she was considering selling household items. She told me she might go and try to find a part-time job that she's able to do, just anything to kind of increase her cash flow so she could afford this treatment, which was a crown that would cost $1,100.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:37
2
Why are millions of Americans skipping the dentist due to cost?
0:37–0:50
3
How does dental insurance fall short for expensive procedures?
0:50–1:40
4
What real-life example shows people turning to medical financing?
1:40–3:05
5
Why are lenders and BNPL companies targeting dental and medical costs?
3:05–4:33
6
How do CareCredit and similar interest-free promotional plans actually work?
4:33–6:38
7
What financial risks arise if promotional dental loans aren’t paid off?
6:38–7:18
8
When is financing dental care a reasonable choice versus a risky decision?
7:18–7:42
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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