Shame that even in many of the more socialist countries, dentist work is not covered as other healthcare is. Somehow it’s just considered optics/beauty and not critical healthcare. Less fortunate people only go when they are in extreme pain and as the damage has already been done (usually over a long time).
I no longer recall the source, but the incidence of major (high cost) dental work at some point in a person's life is so high (80%?) as to be uninsurable. Which is to say even if you balance the cost across the entire population the premium is so high that it too is onorous to afford.
That makes no sense. If people still get that work done they apparently have the money for it, so they also definitely have that same money spread out over years, which is what insurance is.
I don't agree with the person above that it's impossible, but the spread between typical dental work spend and "worst case" is low and the odds of running into the high cost is high to the point that it's hard to come up with a proper insurance plan that makes sense both for customers and insurers.
This is presumably why most pure dental insurance plans, at least here in the UK, are effectively closer to (pre-)payment plans when you factor in the premium-to-cover ratio.
I have worse teeth than average, and even with payouts that would be far higher than average, I've yet to see a dental insurance plan in the UK that'd be worth it to me. For someone with a lower pain threshold for what they can afford to pay out of pocket, however, they can be marginally useful.
But for most people in that situation it'd likely still most of the time be better to take a (small) cashflow gamble and put the equivalent of the premiums into a savings account each month.
After the first few years, odds are you'd have built up enough that your savings would cushion you more than most dental insurance solutions on the UK market at least, other than accident insurance.
If I were to consider any dental insurance, I'd look for one that mostly excluded most things other than higher-payout accident insurance, as the ratio to premium vs. cover for one set of UK plans I looked at was ~1p/year per 1 pound cover and reimbursement of 100% of your costs vs. ~25p/year per 1 pound cover w/only 50% reimbursement + additional restrictions for non-accident treatments.
Alright, well, in my country pretty much everybody has dental insurance. So I still think it’s very possible, given an entire country appears to be able to manage it
idk what you mean by socialist countries but at least in france/germany medical procedures are 100% covered, only aesthetic procedures aren't covered, for example they'll patch you up with an ugly metal teeth and not the new top of the line realistic looking tooth replica.
You also get yearly or bi yearly checkups and yearly cleaning covered. For most people it's more than enough
In Germany cleanings are not covered, neither are Periodontitis treatments and also not even basic implants, only bridges.
In the Netherlands dental work is not covered at all for adults (besides pulling teeth by a surgeon)
You would have to get additional private dental insurance which only covers a certain percentage (mostly 50-75%) and is capped at around 750 Euros per annum while costing almost the same per annum.
Source: German living in NL and now having to pay out of my backside for Periodontitis treatment no matter if in Germany or NL
