Comments on: Open Enrollment, Part 1: Health Care http://thefinancebuff.com/2006/11/open-enrollment-part-1-health-care.html like a friend telling you about money ... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:44:17 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: sewall http://thefinancebuff.com/2006/11/open-enrollment-part-1-health-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-1723 sewall Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:08:40 +0000 http://blog.thefinancebuff.com/?p=29#comment-1723 Dental benefits are designed with a low cap because of adverse selection. People often know when they're going to need costly dental work or they can delay that work somewhat. Then they buy insurance for the year in which they intend to do it and drop it afterwards. Thus, dental insurance suffers from poor risk pooling: a lot of "bad risks" enroll and very few "good risks" do so. The only way to keep the premium from getting out of control is to keep the benefit pretty low. Fundamentally, annual election of dental benefits don't make sense. Dental shouldn't really be unbundled from the overall health plan. For the insurer, it's a bad design from the perspective of risk management. Dental benefits are designed with a low cap because of adverse selection. People often know when they're going to need costly dental work or they can delay that work somewhat. Then they buy insurance for the year in which they intend to do it and drop it afterwards. Thus, dental insurance suffers from poor risk pooling: a lot of "bad risks" enroll and very few "good risks" do so.

The only way to keep the premium from getting out of control is to keep the benefit pretty low. Fundamentally, annual election of dental benefits don't make sense. Dental shouldn't really be unbundled from the overall health plan. For the insurer, it's a bad design from the perspective of risk management.

]]> By: Andy http://thefinancebuff.com/2006/11/open-enrollment-part-1-health-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-1103 Andy Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:03:59 +0000 http://blog.thefinancebuff.com/?p=29#comment-1103 Great series of post. I just did one discussing how I chose my OE options, but the level of detail you hvae here (over 4 posts) is great and was very informative. Thanks. Great series of post. I just did one discussing how I chose my OE options, but the level of detail you hvae here (over 4 posts) is great and was very informative. Thanks.

]]> By: FIRE Finance http://thefinancebuff.com/2006/11/open-enrollment-part-1-health-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-19 FIRE Finance Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:35:00 +0000 http://blog.thefinancebuff.com/?p=29#comment-19 Thanks for this informative post. We have listed you as one of our <a HREF="http://firefinance.blogspot.com/2006/11/carnivals-carnival-of-personal-finance.html" REL="nofollow"> favorites from the Carnival of Personal Finance #74</a>. Keep up the good work.<br/>Cheers<br/><a HREF="http://firefinance.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">FIREFinance</a> Thanks for this informative post. We have listed you as one of our favorites from the Carnival of Personal Finance #74. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
FIREFinance

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