Pet Insurance?

[kosame]

Been considering pet insurance for Theo and my dog, Blessing. I have a savings fund specifically for potential emergency veterinary expenses but I like to be safe.
Do you guys have pet insurance? If not, do you wish you did? If so, what do you use?
Thanks <3

 

[daftcat75]

I have Trupanion. I signed up Krista a week or two before she would have become ineligible. They don’t take any new patients after their 14th birthday. It took nearly a year’s worth of claims for preexisting conditions to land upon something they would cover. But when they did, they really came through. Krista was hospitalized for 10 days to start the year. The bill was two or three times the savings I keep for these things. Trupanion covered 90% after the deductible was met. At 15 years old, Trupanion has likely paid out more than I will pay in for the rest of her life. I will keep paying that premium hoping I’ll never need them again.

 

[Leomc123]

With pet insurance, becareful to read the exclusions. For example if a medical diagnosis is considered to be caused by a pre existing condition such as arthritis, had cancer before the date you insured your pet, you will not be covered. If the illness was before the date of insured, then its not covered. If pet was insured and then got hit by a car the date after the insurance started, then you are insured. If an injury which happened after date of insurance then you may be covered, for example one leg is injured you are covered but if the second leg needs surgurey as well then you pay out of pocket.


In my opinion i would just open a savings account and put all your money in there. Or get your pet examined by a vet and get a document which states that your pet has which prexisiting conditions and non existing ones.

If your pet is prone to injury and car accidents or you feel that it could occur, such as they are indoors and out doors then get cover for accidents.

 

[MissClouseau]

Health insurance is great... when it's good. There is only one insurance for pets in Turkey and I have that. But it's cheap. 250 bucks a year and covers up to 5,000 and is effective both for vet bills and also if the pet causes damage in the house. If it wasn't for this how much I pay vs how much they cover ratio, not worth it.

One of my uncles still to this date regret he got a savings account for his daughter because he calculated it and if he bought gold with the same amount of money per month and put it in gold account of a bank, he would have like x2 more savings.

 

[neely]

Here are a few threads that discuss the subject of pet insurance and might be helpful for you:
Best Pet Insurance
Pet Insurance? Please help!!
Pet Insurance--raise deductible or go without?

 

[Graceful-Lily]

I'd love to have pet insurance but I don't have a job and I'm in college - wouldn't be able to afford it. I depend on the government's money. Maybe one day when I'm financially stable. But for now, I have money set aside for emergencies and that seems to be working well for me (knock on wood).

 

[fionasmom]

One more warning before I answer the question...at least a few companies like ASPCA and Embrace have a policy whereby if you have an original plan but then want to change it....for example, you want a lower deductible, it creates a completely new policy and everything that went before is an exclusion. So think carefully what limits you want when you sign up. Is this typical of all pet insurance policies....I don't know.

Having said that, I have ASPCA for Jamie and have been very happy with them. They pay exactly as their contract originally stipulates and all transactions are clearly explained and detailed. The reason Jamie has insurance is that I found him as a tiny abandoned kitten just as my dog was diagnosed with melanoma and needed an amputation. Now, the catch is that doggie also has Cushings and was, at the time, 11 years old. I had a quote for his insurance, pre cancer, of $100 per month and I flipped out and did not insure him. Do I wish I had? You betcha as his cancer was WAY more than $100 per month. Cushings would have been an exclusion at any rate, as he was diagnosed with that years earlier.

 

[Beyond Confused]

I got pet insurance a few months ago for my kitty, and I definitely wish I would've started sooner. He's 11 now, 10 at the time. As someone else said, once they turn 14, it's tough to get insurance. With Embrace, which is what I got, if you have a policy prior to them turning 14, you'll be covered with that policy for as long as you have it, even after 14. This includes accident and illness. If you get it at 14 or after, they usually only allow policies for accident.

My boy, unfortunately, was diagnosed with pancreatitis earlier this year, and he has a heart murmur. My policy has those as pre-existing conditions, so nothing about those two things will be covered. This is why I wish I'd really known about this sooner.

Here's an example of what they will and won't cover for Duncan:
-If his pancreatitis flairs up, and he starts vomiting profusely, his treatment won't be covered.

-If he eats a plant or something, and he starts vomiting, and I have to take him in, they will cover it. This illness has nothing to do with his pre-existing condition.

-If I'd gotten this plan before his diagnosis, they would've covered everything (or 90%, I think, of everything) including his ongoing meds and even his special diet.

They also have a wellness option for an additional price. Personally, I did not add that in because I added up the cost of wellness visits, vaccinations, monthly Revolution treatments, etc, and really, at least for us, the cost of the added option and what they'd pay out equaled what I pay in a year for that stuff, so there was no point. They have a good calculator on their site, though, so you could decide for yourself.

Yes, you can throw the monthly payments into a savings account (for him, it runs me about $37/month), but I got it because something super serious like cancer treatments would cost an arm and a leg. I just couldn't take that chance.

One last thing that I did -
After poring through all the stipulations of the various plans, and once I'd decided that Embrace was the best option for us, I called them and asked a million questions and gave them various scenarios. The woman on the phone was actually impressed and said they don't usually get someone calling with such detailed questions, trying to ensure that they understood the plan. She was super helpful and patient.

The only negative of this company that I could see, is that the reimbursement process isn't as smooth as a couple of the others. By this, I mean that, at least one of the other companies (I'm drawing a blank on which one) had a super simple process where you scanned your receipt, and you got the money really quickly. Embrace is slightly more involved, but it's outlined on their site. To me, I'm more concerned about the customer service and the plan fitting my needs more than I am about the process of reimbursement.

Oops...one more thing to add and ask about -
I believe Embrace has a pre-existing condition policy where, for certain conditions, if it improves and stays improved for a period of time, the "pre-existing" condition disappears, and it will be covered once again at some point. Definitely something to ask and/or research more.

 

[kosame]

Thank you guys for responding! I've read the responses and I'm doing more research and consideration <3 I think I'll get Theo insurance while he's still young, and continue using my reserve of vet funds for doggo, due to his age + pre-existing problems with seizures and missing leg.
Thank you all again!!

 

[EmersonandEvie]

I have Healthy Paws for my three cats. It's relatively cheap ($30-ish/month for all three). Since all of mine are strictly indoor, I have it in the event that someone gets ill/has something congenital the crops up/ hurts themselves running/etc.

I have a $250 deductible with 80% reimbursement. I think it's worth the money to have a little peace of mind that we wouldn't have to make any decisions regarding quality of care/euthanasia options if someone got seriously injured or sick. That being said, we are extremely blessed that we can afford the extra $30/month, because I know there are a lot of people that cannot. It's really worth calling each company and weighing the pros and cons of having vs. not having insurance. If it isn't in your budget right now, doing what the above posters have said and just putting some money (even only $5 or $10 each month) aside for medical emergencies is better than nothing.

Also, I cannot stress this enough: READ. THE. FINE. PRINT. As people have said above, there are many things that will not be covered. For example, my policy will cover nothing pre-existing (though no insurance company will), any vet visit examination fees, or anything that is considered "preventative maintenance", including spaying/neutering, vaccines, and dental cleanings (found out the hard way when Evie needed a dental earlier this year due to mild gingivitis and they couldn't cover any of it). It's really only there in the event of a true emergency.

Me personally, since dogs tend to get hurt more often (in my relatively limited experience with dogs), I would look into it with the dog. The chances of me personally getting a policy would go up if your cat is inside/outside vs. strictly inside.



EDIT: For some reason I skipped right over your last reply! Disregard my last paragraph about who should get insurance.

 

[ailish]

I bought a policy for Ailish when I first got her. She was a year old and had nothing wrong, so I wanted to get in while the gettin' was good. I bought it for two reasons. One, I didn't want to have to make life and death decisions based on money. Two, my family dog growing up got run over by a car driven by my grandfather when he (the dog) was lifting his leg on the tire and my GF pulled out. The dog was pretty seriously injured, but fixable with surgery. Luckily, my father could pay for the expensive medical care. I will never forget the evening it happened, upset little kids, my mother upset, my grandfather feeling guilty even though no one thought it was his fault... The dog ended up good as new and lived limp free to a ripe old age. I can't even imagine the pain of not being able to save a pet and realized even at the time how lucky we were. I don't have a lot of money, so I wanted to do what I could to to make sure I was never in that position, so I got the insurance.

I have PetPlan but I have never used to so I don't know how they are at paying claims. I just wanted to share my thinking at getting it. People often complain that pet insurance is a waste of money. I hope my insurance is a waste of money and that my cat stays healthy until the day she dies in her sleep at an ancient age. But I realize that doesn't usually happen, so I got the insurance.

Oh, and my problem with the savings account for pet health is that when it's gone it's gone. I've had Ailish for three years, so I've spent about $864 in insurance so far. If I had saved that money instead of buying insurance I could afford - well, not a whole hell of a lot in vet care.

 

[fionasmom]

A ailish I really do agree with you. When you get down to it, we hope that we will never need to use most of our insurances. It is not like I am looking forward to The Big One so that I can finally get some use out of my earthquake insurance. I have also found that veterinary bills can be so steep that having the modest monthly savings account would probably not work for most people. Unfortunately, in the world of animal care, $864 is not going very far, as you have said.