Dental Coverage for Families in El Paso County
Colorado Springs is the most military-concentrated city in the Mountain West, home to Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy, Peterson Space Force Base, and Schriever — while active-duty members have Tricare dental, veterans, retirees, and civilian contractors must purchase separate coverage.
For a family, the rules differ for the kids and the parents. Adult dental care isn’t an essential health benefit under the ACA, so a health plan in Colorado doesn’t have to include it. In El Paso County that means choosing a health plan on Connect for Health Colorado first and treating adult dental as its own purchase.
What Family Dental Plans Cover in El Paso County
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.
Braces are the most common surprise. On SecureDental PLUS they’re covered only on the Premium tier, at 70%, with a 12-month waiting period, a $500 yearly limit and a $1,500 lifetime limit, and many other plans don’t cover them at all.
Enrolling Your Family in Dental Coverage in Colorado
Marketplace dental in Colorado runs through Connect for Health Colorado rather than HealthCare.gov, and it is tied to the exchange’s enrollment periods. A stand-alone dental plan bought outside the Marketplace can start in any month, usually on the first of the following month. Put your ZIP code in the form below and Daniel will pull the dental plans sold at that address.
Check waiting periods before you buy. HealthCare.gov notes that separate dental plans can have waiting periods before they cover services for adults; on SecureDental PLUS, basic care waits 1 month and major care and orthodontia 12 months, while cleanings have no wait.
Serious dental emergencies, such as spreading infection or a broken jaw, are usually treated in a hospital and billed to health insurance rather than the dental plan. Uch-Memorial Health System is one of the 4 hospitals with emergency services that Medicare lists in El Paso County; check which of them your health plan includes.
Stand-alone dental plans are excepted benefits under federal law, so they don’t count as minimum essential coverage and never stand in for a health plan.
Call (713) 575-9904 to compare family dental plans for your address in El Paso County, with the network checked before you apply.