Source
r/PersonalFinanceCanada•
FUNTR6

Medical/Dental Plans

I'm thinking of retiring soon and will lose my medical/dental coverage. The company that provides my current coverage will extend it as long as I'm willing to pay. The plan I'm looking at is about $400 per month and I'm wondering if this is a good idea.

The same money could be used to fund dental work, prescription drugs, etc. directly with no "plan".

When you retired did you purchase medical/dental coverage? Why or why not? What am I missing?

Posted Dec 7, 2018, 11:09 PM UTC · edited

55
hodkan•

How old are you? Many provinces (all?) have programs to help seniors pay for prescriptions.

I'm not sure if there are any dental programs for seniors, but might want to look into it. Either way, paying $5000 for insurance seems like a lot unless you expect to be making extremely heavy use of it.

5
bluenose777•

When we retired we started paying for medical, but not dental coverage. We wanted it for prescription drug coverage because our at our income level the subsidized"family" plan doesn't work very well. At 65 we will qualify for the provincial senior's prescription drug plan and will happily stop paying for coverage.

5
angelcake•

Keep in mind that the seniors coverage doesn’t cover everything so depending what you’ve got going on healthwise you might want to keep your plan.

1
angelcake•

You might want to check into the health and dental plans offered by Costco.

2
PKanuck•

When you retired did you purchase medical/dental coverage? Why or why not? What am I missing?

No. When we retired the monthly cost was $300. When you added in deductibles and copays we would have to spend close to $5000 per year on prescriptions, dental etc. to breakeven.

Currently spend under $1800 for all medical and dental services. Had cancer 2 years ago, only pain killers weren't covered.

2