Dental Coverage for Pitkin County Families
Aspen and Snowmass Village make Pitkin County one of the nation's wealthiest resort communities — but the ski resort workers, restaurant employees, and service staff who make the economy run typically lack employer dental benefits despite the high cost of living.
Families buy dental coverage for two different groups: children and adults. Under the ACA, dental care is an essential health benefit for children but not for adults. Pitkin County residents shop for health plans on Connect for Health Colorado, and adult dental still has to be bought separately.
Adult Dental vs. Pediatric Dental in Pitkin County
Kids 18 and under have a guarantee parents don’t: with Marketplace coverage, dental must be available for them, built into the health plan or offered as a separate dental plan. 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 Pitkin County
No website can reliably tell you which dentists in Pitkin County take a particular plan. Offices join and leave networks, so search the plan’s provider directory by the family’s dentists’ name and ZIP code, then call the office to confirm.
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. In Pitkin County, Medicare’s hospital directory lists one hospital with emergency services: Aspen Valley Hospital District. One of the county’s hospitals is a critical access hospital, the small rural facilities Medicare designates to keep emergency care close.
Call (713) 575-9904 and Daniel will send the dental plans sold in Pitkin County and check your family’s providers against each network.