We found that not all dental/vision plans are created equal. The family plans that my husband’s company offers is well worth it. For vision - checkup and new lens each year for each family member and new glass frames every two years. For dental - my dentist is in the preferred plan and we never file a form, although for some treatments like crowns, much comes out of pocket. My daughter has both a dental and vision plan from her employer. She went on them when she started work after college. Her plans are just not as good. The max dental per year is like $1,500 (sounds good until you need your wisdom teeth out or require an implant or crown). Her vision plan is also not as good, exam is covered, but only provides like $150 towards the glasses (so her glasses end up costing hundreds.) She will be 26 soon, so the point is moot now, but cost-wise it would have been better to have her on our plan the past few years!
Both were proved through my employer, but since I retired last year, all I get is vision. The vision providers are awful, though, so I see an ophthalmologist for the $40 copay if possible. The place I usually go to for glasses gives a discount. Costco is in the plan, so I do get my contacts covered.
Dental is all self-pay. My dentist gives a discount for payment at time of service. It’s really not worth paying for a plan.
Dental but not vision. Vision isn’t worth it for us.
My husband gets family retiree health benefits that continue until I age over to Medicare (9 years age difference between us, so it will be a while since he is only 62). We pay a retiree rate that’s pretty good, and had the option at the time of carrying dental and/or vision.
When he retired, we could get retiree dental but it was expensive and it was a one-time deal. We couldn’t decide to go back and add it later. I added it up and realized our premiums would equal what we would pay in preventative care. Decided to drop that, and paid OOP for wisdom teeth and one round of braces. Even with that, I’m not sure we would have recouped anything worthwhile because of the limited payments.
With four people in glasses and contacts, we opted for the vision insurance and that has been well worth it.
Dental/vision is a no brainer for many active employees, but for us the cost increased substantially for dental as retirees. Vision was not as big a hit.
Pay out of pocket on both. I’ve looked at individual dental plans several times but when I factor in the yearly limits/max they will pay and even lifetime caps, it never makes financial sense to me. They seem to be priced (no surprise since these companies are in business to make $) where the best you can do is break even on your premiums.
I’m also in the “neither” camp, after pricing it out years ago. Our dentist also has their own plan, not insurance, but a yearly charge that includes cleaning/xray/discount on services, and it saves a few hundred. None of us have any dental problems that require anything but the standard cleaning and a rare filling, however (so far!)
With glasses prices dropping with Warby Parker, etc, I imagine vision insurance still wouldn’t be a price break either, but after reading this thread I’m going to look into it again. We have four family members in glasses. If anyone would like to post the name of their plan (independent, not employer) I’d appreciate it!
I’m in the “both” camp. Our vision and dental and hearing coverages are “bundled” together. The cost isn’t all that high, and our expenses for dental and vision well exceed the cost of the premiums.
We had EyeMed for a while, offered through my employer. It’s not really insurance, but a discount program. Our plan didn’t cover eye exams. It might have been a good deal if you needed regular glasses, but when I factored in the premiums, I realized that I was paying more for glasses with progressive lenses than I would have paid without the program-- about $600. I can buy them at Costco for $220. And I can buy contact lenses at Costco for less money than what I would pay through them, and I could get them online cheaper still.
$1500 is typical. Many employer plans are still stuck at $1250 annual max.
Well yeah, if she only buys designer frames, from out of network providers. 
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts.
@bluebayou I was contrasting the same exact items on our family plans vs. the ones my daughter’s company offered. My family dental plan didn’t have a low annual max (had my wisdom teeth out for very little and paid very little for braces for my daughter back when she needed them) and our vision plan typically covers most of the cost of any of the frames in the eye doctor’s little shop (which include designer frames - certainly not a bargain eyeglass place like Costco). My daughter has been going to the same eye place for years and when she switched coverage they told her that her old plan was much better and would have covered much more of the cost.
The no insurance rate versus the negotiated insurance rate makes dental insurance a must despite the yearly limit. If you end up needing an expensive procedure, you’ll appreciate not paying the no insurance rates.
wrt vision.
My glasses guy says that many of his retirees buy an individual plan for a year (such as VSP), and then max out the benefits, by getting the exam, new glasses, etc. Then, since eye refraction doesn’t change much – they just continue to deteriorate – the retiree will not renew the annual plan and wait a year or two and then purchase a new plan, and start the benefits all over again with new exam and glasses.
I’m not sure that I understand. As my COBRA expires in a couple of months, I’ve been pricing dental PPO plans, and as an example, Anthem is ~$65/mo for an annual limit of $1250. In other words, I’d pay $780 in premiums for a max $1250 of benefits, regardless of how expensive the procedure.
Re: #33
Reply #31 may be referring to the dentist’s list price for self-pay patients that may be significantly higher than negotiated prices if the dentist is in a dental PPO or HMO network.
However, not all dentists are much more expensive, and there is less price opacity in dentistry than with most medical procedures. I have gone to a dentist who was not in the employer insurance network but has prices the insurance company was willing to fully pay to an out of network dentist. But I would guess that a new dentist fresh out of dental school with huge dental school debt and debt for the startup cost of a practice in a shiny new office in a pricey area would charge more.