Does Medicare cover dentures? Unfortunately, no, Medicare does not pay for dentures. However, here is an alternative way to pay for dentures when Medicare won’t.
As you already know dentures can be really expensive. According to GoodRx a double Arch denture can cost between $3,000 and $7,000. A full mouth tooth extraction could cost $6,000 to $16,000. Other services associated with getting Dentures could be a thousand’s of dollars more. Realistically your first set of dentures could cost you between $10,000 to $25,000.
The question then, is how are you going to pay for your dentures?
Here are your options to pay dentures since Medicare will not cover them
• Medicare Advantage plans may pay for a small portion of the cost of dentures.
• Paying cash is another option to pay for your dentures. You could pull money out of your savings or retirement accounts.
• Another option is to get a care credit card and finance them and that’s assuming that you qualify.
Let’s assume that you didn’t want to pay cash and you wanted to finance them with a Care Credit Card assuming that your initial set of dentures were going to cost you $18,000. The Care Credit Card minimum payment would be $486 a month.
https://www.carecredit.com/payment_calculator/?amount=18000 as of 8/15/2023 – Please see their website for term and conditions. Assuming $18,000 borrowed
For some people, $486 a month may not be a big deal. For others that could be a crushing a debt payment to make every month.
Here’s the good news. There is an alternative to paying cash or using a Care Credit Card. That alternative is using a reverse mortgage to pay for your dentures.
Let’s take a look at a scenario.
Getting a Reverse Mortgage to Pay for Dentures Because Medicare Won’t
• Steve who is 63 desperately needs Dentures he’s got all sort of dental problems going on right now.
• He has an income of $1,900 a month from Social Security.
• He owns his $400,000 home free and clear.
• He has about $25,000 in retirement savings.
• His entire denture procedure is going to cost $18,000
Steve could afford the payment on the credit the Care Credit Card. But it would be tight financially for him to make that payment every month. He does not want to pull a bunch of money out of his retirement savings because he knows he’s going to have other large expenses at some point in the future during his retirement. Expenses such as car repairs, home repairs and maintenance, or health care costs.
Steve decided to give me a call to find out about getting a reverse mortgage to pay for dentures. The following chart represents Steve’s reverse mortgage.
Numbers in illustration based on interest rates of 8/15/2023. Initial APR of 7.965%. The loan has a variable rate which can change each month. The rate is ties to the 1 Year CMT with a margin of 2.625%. There is a lifetime cap of 5% on the initial rate. The growth rate used in the illustration is based on the expected rate of 6.695% plus .5%. Estimated closing costs of $17,479.55. Closing costs will vary by state. Not a commitment to lend. Assumes no payment. The content is provided solely for illustrative purposes, and outcomes cannot be assured. The information is derived from distinct individual client scenarios, each of which is subject to variation.”
The blue bar represents his home value. You can see that his home value is increasing over time assuming a 4% appreciation rate.
The orange bar represents his loan balance. Initially Steve is going to draw out $18,000 to pay for his dentures and he’s going to lump the closing costs into the loan. You can see this loan balance is increasing over time.
The reason the loan balance is increasing over time is because we are making the assumption that Steve is not going to make a monthly mortgage payment towards the reverse mortgage. (He still has to pay his property taxes and his homeowner’s insurance) Because he’s not making a mortgage payment the interest and mortgage insurance just gets added to the loan balance each month. Therefore his loan balance is going to increase.
The green bar represents his line of credit. Initially he’s starting off with a $96,120 line of credit. This is the amount of funds available after drawing money to pay for his dentures and lumping the closing costs into the loan. For Steve, this is fantastic because that’s four times what he even has in his savings account today.
As you can see the funds in the line of credit are growing. The reason the funds the line of credit are growing is because any funds available grow at the current interest rate plus a half a percent.
If Steve never needed to dip into this line of credit, in 15 years he’s expected to have $281,922 line of credit that he could draw from. If Steve needed money out of this line of credit, at any time, he can draw those funds out and he still does not have to make a monthly payment towards his reverse mortgage. (He still has to pay his property taxes and his homeowner’s insurance)
Getting a reverse mortgage to pay for dentures and making a monthly payment towards the reverse mortgage
Steve didn’t really like the idea of this growing loan balance. He figured if he financed his dentures in any other way, he would have to make a payment. Why not just make a payment towards the reverse mortgage balance? Steve felt comfortable with making a reverse mortgage payment of $350.
The following bar chart shows what would happen if Steve made a monthly mortgage payment towards the reverse mortgage.
Numbers in illustration based on interest rates of 8/15/2023. Initial APR of 7.965%. The loan has a variable rate which can change each month. The rate is ties to the 1 Year CMT with a margin of 2.625%. There is a lifetime cap of 5% on the initial rate. The growth rate used in the illustration is based on the expected rate of 6.695% plus .5%. Estimated closing costs of $17,479.55. Closing costs will vary by state. Not a commitment to lend. Assumes payment of $350. The content within this video is provided solely for illustrative purposes, and outcomes cannot be assured. The information is derived from distinct individual client scenarios, each of which is subject to variation.”
As you can see, the loan balance represents the loan balance, and we can see this is getting paid down over time. In 15 years, Steve basically has this loan paid off which is cool.
Something else magical has happened.
His line of credit, represented by the green bar, has increased significantly. In 10 years, by making a payment of $350 a month, his line of credit has increased to $258,185. Had Steve not made a monthly mortgage payment, he would only have $196,951 in his line of credit. By making that monthly payment Steve has added $61,234 to the line of credit over 10 years.
The reason the line of credit is so much larger is because dollar for dollar, whatever Steve pays towards the reverse mortgage balance not only brings the loan balance down, but it increases the line of credit. There is a massive impact by just making that payment.
Benefits of getting a reverse mortgage to pay for dentures because Medicare does not cover them
By using the reverse mortgage to pay for his dentures:
• Steve gets the dentures that he wants and needs. He may even want to consider dental implants instead.
• He doesn’t have to take on any new monthly payments with any other financing source whether that’s the Care Credit Card a personal loan another credit card.
• He’s not taking on monthly debt payments.
• He creates a ton of financial flexibility in his monthly mortgage payment because Steve doesn’t have to make a payment, he could pay as much or as little as he wants, he could make payments for six months and then stop. It provides flexibility that any other type of financing solution for his Dentures doesn’t. (he still has to pay his property taxes and insurance)
• The reverse mortgage it creates an additional source of funds to deal with other large expenses that are likely to pop up during his retirement. Steve was only starting off with $25,000 in savings to get him through the rest of his retirement. By getting the reverse mortgage he was able to add an additional $96,000 in liquid funds.
• If he makes monthly mortgage payments, he has access to all those payments at any point in the future. Not only paying his loan balance down, but savings those payments for use at some point in the future. He will always have access to those funds assuming that he’s meeting his loan obligations which are living in the home as your primary residence, and maintaining the property and those are all things that Steve is already doing and would continue to do.
Want to see how a reverse mortgage could help you pay for dentures when Medicare won’t. Give me a call. I am happy to put all your numbers together to help you determine if a reverse mortgage is the right decision for you.
