Looking for Advice on Pet Insurance

Harlow Barlow

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I am fairly certain my cat has hyperthyroidism, but I have not had her diagnosed. I am uncertain on whether or not pet insurance would be a good option. I know that I would have to get insurance before taking her to the vet for official testing. I don't really understand pet insurance very well, but I am concerned about the long term cost of treatment.
Does anybody have pet insurance, and is there any companies that you would recommend?
 

daftcat75

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I am fairly certain my cat has hyperthyroidism, but I have not had her diagnosed. I am uncertain on whether or not pet insurance would be a good option. I know that I would have to get insurance before taking her to the vet for official testing. I don't really understand pet insurance very well, but I am concerned about the long term cost of treatment.
Does anybody have pet insurance, and is there any companies that you would recommend?
I have Trupanion. They have an 18 month look-back period from when you sign up to look for preexisting conditions. If you took her in for thyroid symptoms in the last 18 months even if there wasn't a hyperthyroidism diagnosis, there's a good chance they'll label that as a pre-existing condition. In Krista's case, her lookback included a vomiting visit. Everything related to her later diagnosed IBD and pancreatitis has been excluded because of that vomit visit in the look-back period.

Trupanion also has an age limit. They won't accept new policies after her 14th birthday. If she's 14 or older, it's too late to get her insured. If she's enrolled before her 14th birthday, like my Krista was when I signed her up, then they'll continue to insure her for the rest of her life as long as premiums are paid.

There is also a balance to strike between how much deductible you can afford vs how much premium you can afford. For my now 15 year old, I pay $65/mo for a $1000 deductible. A quick Google search estimates the cost of radioactive iodine treatment at $1000-$1500. This may not be worth the premiums for only $500 of eligible expenses after the deductible.

Insurance makes more sense for emergencies like the 10 day hospitalization Krista had earlier this year. The bill was several times that $1500 number. What Trupanion paid out for that bill will likely cover every premium payment for the rest of her life.
 
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Harlow Barlow

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She is about 3-4 years old. I know it is highly uncommon for a cat her age to have hyperthyroidism, but all her symptoms line up. The only thing she has been to the vet for was almost 2 years ago for a minor eye irritation.
My serious cost concerns involve repeated vet visits, regular blood testing, regular medication, or a big expensive treatments.
 

juju521

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I have Healthy Paws for my two cats. I got insurance for both my kittens at 5 months and 3 months old so my premium is only $35 for both a month. Since your cat is older I would expect your premium to be higher than mine. I get 90% reimbursement of treatments, procedures, and medication and have a $500 deductible for each cat. They don't cover exam fees, but I don't think there's a pet insurance that does. I think it's worth it if your cat has to go on regular medication and especially for the random illnesses that can pop up. Not sure what the look back period is for Healthy Paws but worth doing a comparison and getting quotes from the various insurance companies.
 

myrnafaye

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I am fairly certain my cat has hyperthyroidism, but I have not had her diagnosed. I am uncertain on whether or not pet insurance would be a good option. I know that I would have to get insurance before taking her to the vet for official testing. I don't really understand pet insurance very well, but I am concerned about the long term cost of treatment.
Does anybody have pet insurance, and is there any companies that you would recommend?

I would never be without pet insurance again. We got Yuki last October, and in July, he spiked a high fever literally in the time it took for my husband and I to eat dinner. His stay at t he local emergency clinic was over $2000. The pet insurance paid 90%. This past weekend, both cats were in the emergency clinic. The stress about affording medical care is GONE if you you have pet insurance. I have ASPCA Pet Insurance, and I am pretty sure there is also a waiting period for them also for pre-existing conditions. I think each cat costs about $30-35 a month but as we know, it can cost way more than that to provide medical care to our cats.
 

VinceL

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A few years ago I looked into pet insurance for our 4 cats. At that time they were 7, 8, 9 and 10 years old. I looked at 4 different pet insurance companies (sorry, I don't remember which ones). The best multi-cat deal I found was 10% off the premiums. Premiums for all the plans were in the $40 per cat per month range. With a 10% discount, that worked out to an annual cost of over $1,700. Given that pet insurance doesn't cover routine care, I figured if we had to deal with one $3,400 emergency every other year, we would break even.

Our daughter has had pet insurance for her one cat for several years. Her cat was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Since she has had the insurance for so long, it was not considered pre-existing. So, the insurance did cover a big chunk of the iodine treatment.

I think pet insurance for one, maybe two, cats can be cost effective. But, when you have more than 2 cats, I think it is prohibitively expensive.

Fortunately, our daughter is currently attending vet school. So, our future vet care costs should be much less. :yess:
 

jen

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I would recommend ASPCA pet insurance. Their rates seemed to be the best out of any I have had a quote done on.
 

Meowmee

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Don’t get pets health whatever you do. Worst company ever! At first they were pretty good and then they denied practically everything as a preexisting condition even if it was totally unrelated and your cat had not been treated for it in the 289 day period or whatever it was. Very happy to take premiums from 4 cats for over a nearly 20 year period and pay almost nothing. I had several thousand the denied for Syb as preexisting but I appealed one bill and won that. They still only paid a portion. They wants to note an emergency visit for her to treat an abscess on her ear because she had been scratching her ear several months before with a fungal infection, that was considered a preexisting condition!


I have been meaning to put all the bills together submit them and then contact the lawyer to try to sue them for fraud. But I have been dealing with so much and I have been too exhausted to do it yet. Unfortunately I had already insured Quinn with them and now I’m afraid to switch them to another company because it seems from reading here the other companies aren’t really that much better, although I was told they were. PH now has a plan the covers pre-existing conditions which is what I got for Quinn but I really don’t trust them anymore I’m sure they will find a way to wiggle her way out of paying for any type of chronic condition.

Maybe it is good for emergencies but really overall you may be better off to save your money in an account and use it when your cats need the care rather than handing over years and years of premiums to a company that is basically committing fraud by refusing to pay a valid claim. Premiums for plans that cover pre-existing conditions are very expensive so keep that in mind.
 

nycats

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I have ASPCA, and they covered most of my 3yo cat's dental extractions (he's got bad teeth genes). I pay about 75 or 80 a month for 3 cats.
 
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