Pet insurance recommendations?

smollcat

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I just adopted a 9 month old Scottish fold kitten from my local shelter and am looking into pet insurance! Anyone have any recommendations or ones to stay away from? Thanks!
 

Kieka

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Glad to hear you are giving that little one a home. I know you will take great care of them. Just keep in mind most pet insurances exclude pre existing or genetic conditions. But it's still a good idea to cover everything else.

What country or region are you in? Just so people can suggest for where you are.
 
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smollcat

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Kieka Kieka I'm in the midwest in the United States!
 

Julesbiscuits

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I've had really good luck with Trupanion. They're expensive but worth it in my opinion, they don't cover routine care but that's not really what pet insurance is for. They contract with various vet clinics across the country as well so at some locations you can run vet bills directly through insurance instead of waiting for reimbursement. For example, if you have Bluepearl near you they take Trupanion right at the desk. You still have to put a card on file for what insurance doesn't cover but that's standard.

When my cat Jules got very sick two years ago, we rushed him over to the Bluepearl down the road. We thought he had a potential dental issue since he wasn't eating that AM. I had enrolled him with Trupanion a year before, knowing certain things wouldn't be covered such as skin issues because they were preexisting. Boy am I glad we did, the emergency vet took one look at him and was concerned he was in end stage renal failure. Because of Trupanion I was able to have her do a radiograph and all the other testing to confirm that both his kidneys were riddled with cysts, a condition he'd apparently had since birth and had been rapidly worsening his whole life. It was heartbreaking and we had to put him down, but Trupanion whittled down a 4k+ vet bill down to 750$. I'm pretty sure they even covered at least part of his cremation and euthanasia. Apparently he had an especially fast moving and severe version of PKD and there wasn't really anything we could have done to prevent it from killing him so young; he hid his symptoms so well our normal vet didn't pick up on it, not even when we did blood work 6 months before for his dental. He even had a urinalysis done the year before with no concerns.

All this to say, it's never what you think it'll be with cats. Things come out of the blue and insurance premiums aren't a waste. I know people say that a lot.
 

Gizmobius

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I have Lemonade pet insurance but haven't had to use it yet so unfortunately I can't offer any experience in how they pay claims. I have just the basic accident and illness coverage with a $250 deductible, 90% coverage, and an annual limit of 10k and I went with Lemonade because they had some of the most affordable prices. Add ons are available if you want more coverage (such as coverage for behavioral issues which I wish I would've done for one of mine!) The annual price for my two 1 year old boys is each $141 while the annual price for my 5 year old girl is about $180. You also get a discount for multiple pets.

Definitely shop around though and get quotes everywhere you can and compare and contrast what works best for you and your kitty's individual needs! I really wanted Trupanion, especially for the fact they're able to pay your vet directly, but they were just too far out of my budget for three cats. :frown:
 

fionasmom

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There have been a number of discussion on TCS about insurance and some of these threads may be helpful.

I have 5 cats insured with ASPCA; however, do your own research and determine what works for you and where you would stand financially if facing a huge vet bill.

It will be easier if you make a decision within the near future and avoid all pre existing condition clauses.
 

jman_in_mn

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Search Results for Query: pet insurance
There have been a number of discussion on TCS about insurance and some of these threads may be helpful.

I have 5 cats insured with ASPCA; however, do your own research and determine what works for you and where you would stand financially if facing a huge vet bill.

It will be easier if you make a decision within the near future and avoid all pre existing condition clauses.
so my cat just had an official long term disease diagnosis, I presume that a new pet insurance policy with anybody will not cover this pre-existing condition?
 

fionasmom

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They probably won't if it is a true long term diagnosis. However, depending on the age of your cat, you may want to consider insurance as, sadly, he may encounter other illnesses.

On a short term condition, such as a bladder infection that is confined to only that diagnosis or an ear infection, some companies will give you a waiting period before they will cover it, but after the waiting period they will.

Ask a lot of questions. Most vets do not bill insurance; however, I found that my cat vet will bill Trupanion.
 

Freddieandchip

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I use lemonade, I have recently brought my cat to the vet multiple times and lemonade has been great! It would have been much harder to afford if I didn’t have them. I pay $13 a month and my plan is 80% back after a $250 deductible. I haven’t had any issues getting things covered at all and they have been so nice and helpful. The only thing is their plan is pretty limited unless you get add ons. For example, I didn’t get the behavioral add on so now my cats blood tests for his anxiety medication aren’t covered which is kind of annoying but they are very clear about what they do and don’t cover with each plan so I already knew it wasn’t going to be covered. I definitely recommend getting a physical exam as soon as possible if you haven’t already, even if you are going to spend more time looking for an insurance company. I’m pretty sure most of them will accept a health history and physical exam as long as it was in the 12 months before you signed up (there definitely might me some exceptions). The only reason I say that is because my cat started having allergy issues when he was only a few months old and I just happened to get his physical exam right before it started happening so luckily everything related to it is covered under his insurance, if I would have waited a few more weeks it would have been considered pre existing.
 

daftcat75

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I had done a comparison shop last year when I adopted Betty. For me, my desirables were a high deductible--I can afford a one-time $1000 bill if it brings my premiums down significantly--high (or no) annual coverage limit, and an annual payment option. I found those in Embrace. The annual payment option is very high on my list. Her annual premium payment comes out to about one vet visit with lab work. It's easy enough for me to pay once and not worry about it the rest of the year.

A note on pre-existing conditions: I have had two cats insured now--my last one was insured with Trupanion whose annual rate increases were obnoxiously large. But they did pay out quite a bit for her. They paid out far more than I could have repaid in via premiums. Though I would have loved an extra ten years with Krista to try. This was despite the fact that she had an IBD exclusion. She found other ways to spend my money at the vet including an $8,000 emergency room visit, MRI, and VBO surgery for a debilitating inner ear infection. That was covered at 90% after my deductible. Betty also has an IBD exclusion. I thought I got her into the vet and insured before anything pre-existing would rear its head. Unfortunately, a few days after the new policy waiting period expired, she had an ER visit vomiting and spitting up all day. I had mentioned to the doctor that she had a hairball/vomiting episode the week before and the insurance agent reviewing the claim deduced that her vomiting had started in the policy waiting period and was thus considered pre-existing for insurance purposes. Yet despite having this rather large exclusion (vomiting and anything that could be diagnosed from that such as IBD or lymphoma), Betty has also managed to extract several years worth of premiums in covered and reimbursed expenses.

Cats being cats, you just never know when or how they're going to get sick. And sometimes the insurance companies do cover things they said they won't. I have had emergency room imaging covered when the same imaging as part of an office visit would be denied.

My suggestions would be a high deductible if you can afford a one-time high bill. This will bring the premiums down dramatically. An annual premium will also increase your likelihood to keep coverage even when (not "if") premiums creep up each year. And finally, you'd be shocked how much coverage a cat can go through. Don't think you're saving money by accepting a low annual coverage limit. Since both Krista and Betty have exceeded $10k in a year, I would not accept anything less than Embrace's $30,000/year limit. One or two of them had no limit. But the tradeoffs elsewhere (probably a lack of annual payment or high deductible options) were not worth consideration.
 

daftcat75

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This what I had put together last year for Betty. I'm sure everything is more expensive this year than it was when I collected these.

These are also rates for an expensive zip code in California. Your rates may differ based on where you live. It's well-known California pays more for just about everything than other regions in the country.

RateAnnualCompanyDeductibleReinbursementLimits
$16.18$194.16Healthy Paws$1,000.0080%none
$18.14$217.68Embrace$1,000.0090%$30,000/year
217.62/year$217.62Embrace$1,000.0090%$30,000/year
$27.82$333.84Wagmo$1,000.00100%$10,000/incident, $100,000/lifetime
$25.45$305.40Wagmo$1,000.0090%$10,000/incident, $100,000/lifetime
$29.29$351.48Prudent Pet$1,000.0090%$10,000/year
$23.65$283.80Prudent Pet$1,000.0080%$10,000/year
$38.59$463.08Fetch$500.0090%$15,000/year
$46.45$557.40Fetch$500.0080%$15,000/year
$28.44$341.28Pumpkin$500.0080%$7,000/year
$39.49$473.88Pumpkin$500.0090%$15,000/year
$34.36$412.32Trupanion$1,000.0090%none
$45.59$547.08Trupanion$700.0090%none
$79.49$953.88Trupanion$200.0090%none

This is not exhaustive. There were some I'm sure that I missed. And others probably had such inferior offerings that they weren't even worth consideration.
 

meowmixing

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I like trupanion because there is lifetime coverage of 90% per condition once you meet the deductible for a condition. The reason I have it is for major issues (something that would rack up $20,000 for example). Not as concerned for smaller expenses. Other insurance may be less expensive for premiums but may cap out at a few thousand per year.
 
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