I'm going to sign up for the Dental Insurance that Wal-Mart offers. I'm a full timer there. Anyways, I was looking through everything and it says the fillings and such are covered after you've met your annual deductible. What is that? The coverage is $6.20 every two weeks that gets taken out of my checks. On the packet there was a chart and in the chart on the left side it said "annual deductible" and then on the right it said "$50 for associate only", $150 for associate and family". My managers had no idea what I was asking. No one seems to know. What is the annual deductible? How does all that work? I've never had medical or dental insurance before and I'm confused by it all.
An annual deductible is the amount of money you pay out of pocket before the insurance kicks in with it's share. So, if you have coverage for yourself only, you will have to pay $50 before the insurance starts to pay their part, in addition to paying the copay if there is any. So, assume you go to the dentist and your visit is a total bill of $100. You would pay $50, and then the insurance would pay their part of the $50 remaining balance. If you go to the dentist again within the year, the insurance would pay its part of the total bill because your annual deductible was already paid for that year. If there year goes from October of one year to September of the next, then every October you would have that $50 deductible to meet the next time you see the dentist.
an annual deductible, means that you have to pay UP TO SUCH amount every year for a given disease.
For example, if you get diabetes (a multi year disease) you will pay 50 every year. That is cheaper for the company than a per-disease deductible.
Be aware that even if it annual deductible, if you get two unrelated diseases (for example to different teeth fixed), you pay deductible for each one.
If your agent (or walmart's agent) didn't explain that to you, you should complain and demand that the agent explains and makes sure that everyone understood.
hope it helps.
an deductible means you have to pay that amount yourself before your policy will pay.