Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1357945
6 BECKER'S DENTAL + DSO REVIEW - VOL. 2021 NO. 2 DENTAL PROFESSIONALS 39% of Americans cut back insurance coverage in 2020: What that means for dental By Gabrielle Masson D ental coverage was the third most common policy that Americans decided to scale back or drop in 2020, according to a survey from ValuePenguin. The online survey, conducted from Dec. 9-11, included responses from 1,023 Americans. The sample base was proportioned to represent the U.S. population. Here are six survey takeaways: 1. Overall, 39 percent of Americans cut back on some type of insurance policy in 2020. 2. Forty-five percent of respondents said they cut insurance to save money, while 29 percent said they couldn't afford it. 3. Health insurance was the most common policy dropped, followed by auto and dental. 4. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents who cut back on their insurance plans intend for it to be a temporary change. 5. Seventy-five percent of people cut expenses in other areas before they reduced their insurance. 6. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they didn't have dental insurance. n 3 dental jobs among highest paying in nation: US News By Gabrielle Masson J obs in the dental field are some of the highest paying, with oral and maxillofacial surgeons averaging $208,000 annually, according to U.S. News & World Report, which released its "Best Paying Jobs" list Jan. 12. For the ranking, U.S. News used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify jobs with the greatest hiring demand from 2019-29. From there, researchers compared each job's median salary to determine a list of the highest-paying jobs. Here are the highest-paying jobs, based on median salary: • Anesthesiologist: $208,000 • Surgeon: $208,000 • Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $208,000 • Obstetrician and gynecologist: $208,000 • Orthodontist: $208,000 • Prosthodontist: $208,000. n 11 states with lowest, highest dental costs By Gabrielle Masson W alletHub released a Feb. 10 analysis including states with the highest and lowest costs for dental treatment. WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia using 26 metrics related to dental habits and oral health. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 repre- senting the most favorable conditions for dental health. 6 states with the highest dental costs (tied): Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont 5 states with the lowest dental costs (tied): Alabama Kentucky Mississippi Tennessee Texas n