Dental Coverage for Eagle County Families
Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, has a large seasonal hospitality workforce — lift operators, lodge employees, restaurant workers — who typically receive no employer dental coverage despite working in one of Colorado's most expensive communities.
Families buy dental coverage for two different groups: children and adults. Health insurance and dental insurance are separate purchases for most adults, because adult dental isn’t an ACA essential health benefit. Whatever health plan you pick through Connect for Health Colorado, adult dental coverage is a separate decision in Eagle County.
Adult Dental vs. Pediatric Dental in Eagle County
Dental care is an essential health benefit for children, so with Marketplace coverage, dental must be available for anyone 18 or younger, either in the health plan or as a separate dental plan. Parents get no such guarantee. Check what your Connect for Health Colorado plan already includes for the children before you buy a separate plan for them.
A family dental plan covers each enrolled person under one policy, with the same preventive, basic and major classes of care as an individual plan. Deductibles usually apply per person with a family cap: $50 a person up to $150 a family on SecureDental PLUS.
Choosing a Family Dental Plan in Eagle County
The only reliable network check is the plan’s own provider directory, followed by a call to the office. Dental practices in Eagle County move in and out of networks, so do it before you enroll rather than after.
If braces are likely, read the orthodontia terms first: plenty of dental plans leave them out, and SecureDental PLUS limits them to the Premium tier, paying 70% after 12 months up to $500 a year and $1,500 over a lifetime.
Waiting periods are the catch. On SecureDental PLUS, cleanings are covered right away, fillings after 1 month, and crowns, bridges and orthodontia after 12 months, and HealthCare.gov warns that separate dental plans in general can have waiting periods for adults.
Know where the line sits: a dental plan covers care in a dentist’s chair, while an emergency department visit for a dental abscess or a jaw injury is a health insurance claim. The only hospital with emergency services that Medicare lists in Eagle County is Vail Health Hospital, so check that your health plan includes it.
Call (713) 575-9904 and Daniel will send the dental plans sold in Eagle County and check your family’s providers against each network.