Coverage for Teeth

Few risks faze Chicago's big Continental Casualty Co. It pioneered in life insurance for United Nations truce teams, drivers in the Indianapolis 500 and health insurance for the aged. This week Continental announced it would cross another frontier: group dental insurance.

Although dozens of dental insurance plans are already in force, they are all backed by nonprofit organizations such as dentists' associations and labor unions. Continental is the first insurance company with its own plan.

Since tooth decay is virtually universal, insurance companies have shied away from dental coverage, figuring that the insured would rush to the dentist as soon as the policy was in effect. Continental found that this was not so. It ran a test plan for two years for 2,450 employees and dependents of the Dentists' Supply Co. of New York at its York, Pa. plant. Continental found that the fear of the dentist's drill was the actuary's best friend. People who had made it a habit to visit the dentist continued to go, but the great majority of those who had stayed away continued to stay away.

Participants in the plan visited the dentist only slightly more often than the average for the rest of the U.S. The only difference was that once they were in the chair, they allowed the dentist to do more work. Thus their families ran up a per capita bill of $34 (v. a national per capita bill of $9.76).

Despite the higher bills, Continental reckons that it will be able to provide group dental coverage for "something less than $100 per year per family." There will be a deductible feature: during the first year, the first three members of a family will have to pay the initial $25 of the dental bill; Continental pays 60% to 80% of the rest of the bill up to a maximum of $500 per family. After the first year, the benefits become more liberal, and the deductible payments drop to $10.

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