NWR: Fellow pet people, insurance yay or nay?

drunkenwitch

So Loki is young and just got a clean bill of health from vet, yay! I've been seriously considering getting insurance for him. The prices are very reasonable and my last beloved companion got very sick in her last few years. Several friends and my vet have mentioned Trupanion as a great option.

Questions: do you have pet insurance? Is it worth it? What company do you recommend?

drunkenwitch

Also, here is a cute Loki picture

JediElizabeth

Oh my goodness, Loki is the cutest! I'm glad he's healthy!

Pet insurance is a definite yes for me. I've only ever had dogs (and not currently because apartment living), but it's definitely paid off for my family. Particularly later in life when they've gotten arthritis and other degenerative issues, it's worth not having to treat every vet visit as a financial emergency. 

WinstonsGirl

We didn't, but Winston was a hedgehog, had a shorter life span, and in the case of most hedgehogs, the get cancer. Therefore, there isn't much you can do, in my opinion. We were also very stable financially, so the cost wasn't going to hurt us. For example, Winston would have needed to have most of his lower jaw removed, leading to us feeding him. He eats constantly through the night, so it wouldn't have been a good quality of life for him. He was also just short of 5 years, which is their average lifespan, so we opted to put him down when it got worse. I'd be more likely to consider it for a dog or cat, or some animal that had a much longer lifespan.

drunkenwitch

I'm sorry to hear about Winston, I know a hedgehog, they are awesome little creatures.

sunflower0592

I didn't have a great experience with pet insurance. We adopted our dog from the SPCA, and with his adoption we got a free month of pet insurance. I opted to continue the insurance and pay for it after the free month was up, since it was only something like $20/month. So a few months after we get him, he starts having some weird symptoms, and I was worried he possibly had a UTI (I know they're less common with male dogs but I wanted to be on the safe side). Took him to the vet, checked him over, filed a claim after and it was denied because he turned out not to be physically sick.. but obviously, if I knew that, I wouldn't have taken him to the vet in the first place. So I cancelled the service after that. I've heard of other people having similar experiences; coverage for necessary surgeries being denied because certain ailments are common in certain breeds of dogs, etc.

huskypuppy14

sunflower0592 said:

I didn't have a great experience with pet insurance. We adopted our dog from the SPCA, and with his adoption we got a free month of pet insurance. I opted to continue the insurance and pay for it after the free month was up, since it was only something like $20/month. So a few months after we get him, he starts having some weird symptoms, and I was worried he possibly had a UTI (I know they're less common with male dogs but I wanted to be on the safe side). Took him to the vet, checked him over, filed a claim after and it was denied because he turned out not to be physically sick.. but obviously, if I knew that, I wouldn't have taken him to the vet in the first place. So I cancelled the service after that. I've heard of other people having similar experiences; coverage for necessary surgeries being denied because certain ailments are common in certain breeds of dogs, etc.

Depending on the type of coverage you have, pet insurance isn't like our health insurance. It doesn't cover every time you go to the vet. Usually it's for major incidents, like if your dog or cat got hit by a car, broke their leg, got a snake bite, etc. Our dog had to get dewormed twice, and had to get teatment for a rash on his stomach, and neither was covered because it's a common occurrence, and not overly expensive. We make good money, so a hundred here or there isn't going to hurt us, but it's something to think about. It also doesn't cover wellness visits, unless you get a special plan that covers that. 

We use VPI for our dog, because my husband gets it as a benefit through his work, so it just comes out of his paycheck, so it's not really noticed. We've only had our dog a year, and he's young, so we haven't utilized it yet, but it's a saftey net in case something major happened. 

luckya23

I feel i got my money's worth on my two dogs who have since passed away. One had intervertebral disc disease which thankfully was resolved with crate rest, but many long backed dogs end up needing surgery. My other dog got into food she wasn't supposed to have twice in the first few months after I got her, necessitating ER stays.
I had their policies through PetFirst, and the claims were easy to submit. I paid about 40/MO for each of them because they were older. I was able to have a multi-dog policy which was cheaper before the first turned 10.

charlottesmom0626

Obviously y'all know I love my bulldog. But I looked into a few insurance companies and they'd only cover accidents. Anything that could be deemed breed related wouldn't be covered. I called every company I could think of to confirm this, and basically decided it was worthless to us.

Charlotte doesn't normally chew or eat things she's not supposed to, she sleeps 20 hours a day so she's unlikely to break a bone or anything...

So if she ate a TV cable? Covered. The two eye surgeries and all of the dermatology visits? Uncovered because they're due to her being a bulldog.

fyrchk

I had pet insurance for my dog and dropped it after they wouldn't cover her teeth pulling and getting spayed. Now I just have care credit so I can have some interest-free time to pay off a "big" bill.

sunflower0592

huskypuppy14 said:

sunflower0592 said:

I didn't have a great experience with pet insurance. We adopted our dog from the SPCA, and with his adoption we got a free month of pet insurance. I opted to continue the insurance and pay for it after the free month was up, since it was only something like $20/month. So a few months after we get him, he starts having some weird symptoms, and I was worried he possibly had a UTI (I know they're less common with male dogs but I wanted to be on the safe side). Took him to the vet, checked him over, filed a claim after and it was denied because he turned out not to be physically sick.. but obviously, if I knew that, I wouldn't have taken him to the vet in the first place. So I cancelled the service after that. I've heard of other people having similar experiences; coverage for necessary surgeries being denied because certain ailments are common in certain breeds of dogs, etc.

Depending on the type of coverage you have, pet insurance isn't like our health insurance. It doesn't cover every time you go to the vet. Usually it's for major incidents, like if your dog or cat got hit by a car, broke their leg, got a snake bite, etc. Our dog had to get dewormed twice, and had to get teatment for a rash on his stomach, and neither was covered because it's a common occurrence, and not overly expensive. We make good money, so a hundred here or there isn't going to hurt us, but it's something to think about. It also doesn't cover wellness visits, unless you get a special plan that covers that. 

We use VPI for our dog, because my husband gets it as a benefit through his work, so it just comes out of his paycheck, so it's not really noticed. We've only had our dog a year, and he's young, so we haven't utilized it yet, but it's a saftey net in case something major happened. 

Yeah, I honestly don't know now what kind of plan I had for him, this was 2 years ago and I'm sure the paperwork is long gone. I'm guessing it was probably their most basic plan, the company was 24PetWatch. In any case, I didn't see the point in paying $20 a month for a dog that likes nothing more than to stay home and sleep the majority of the day. Although I'm kind of wishing now I'd kept it since we just dropped $1100 to have a benign tumor removed from his eyelid, ouch. But who knows, they might have denied that too! Oh well, live and learn. That's awesome that your husband's job offers that benefit, you've probably got better coverage than I did and it's worth the money.

hellohkb

I have an indoor cat who sleeps or cuddles the majority of the day. Since she doesn't ever go outside and she's pretty sedentary, I doubt an accident will ever happen (I hope). Pet insurance would be worthless for us, imo.

If I had a dog or an outdoor cat I would consider it.

CMGragain

I have had quite a few cats over my lifetime.  All lived to be senior citizens, except the last one, who died at the very young age of five.  Insurance would not have helped in any of their later years.  The major expenses were immunizations and dental work, which is not covered.  All the cats eventually died from kidney disease, one at the age of 18.  My last cat was very accident prone, and we had an $800 emergency vet bill when he lost half of his beautiful long tail.  (DH stepped on it when the cat was springing up to the window sill.)  The insurance might have helped then, but what are the chances?
We don't allow our cats outside.  Too many coyotes in this neighborhood!  Current cat is very content indoors and stays away from human feet.

kvruns

we don't have it. I think it depends on your breed of dog and what the likely health problems would be since it sounds like if it is an ailment common to that breed it wont be covered. I'd read the exclusions very closely before getting it

southernbelle0915

We don't have it for our cat. She's an indoor kitty and we keep the house pretty safe for her. Plus we have an emergency fund set aside in case something super unexpected happens or she ends up with some unpreventable illness.

We will probably take the same approach with a dog when we get one, but I don't know for sure. If we don't get insurance, we'll up the emergency fund quite a bit because, in my experience, dogs are more prone to accidents than cats.

princessleia22

I looked into it a few years ago.  It was going to cost me about $40/month for our dog and wouldn't cover any of the issues most likely to happen, so I chose not to get it. So, definitely look at the policy and what they will or won't cover for your breed. It may be worth it for some, but not for others.

lovemesomemonster

We don't have it for our dog who just turned 8 (Happy Birthday Kali!). She has had some accidents but the most we have paid is $700 in one visit which is something we can cover. Probably something we should consider since she does everything with us like riding on the dirt bikes (I ran her over once) and snowmobiles, and thinks all LARGE animals in our yard are "friends" (cue 20lb dog making friends with deer). 

It's really a gamble.. even with our crazy dog her "accident" type vet appointments have only cost us $1200 over 8 years, so less per month than insurance would have been. You never know what will happen though, we are just prepared to cover it if something does happen.

cupcait927

I don't see any point in getting it. I looked up some options a little while back and between the monthly premium, any sort of deductible, and the very real chance that it won't cover the costs due to whatever reason (breed, medical history, etc), it just seemed like a waste of money. I'd rather put aside every month into a savings account just for our dog and draw from that if necessary. 

Wegl13

A couple of other things to keep in mind- almost every pet insurance I've come across was under the "you pay for it and if it's covered we pay you back" variety, so you are going to need to come up with that money up front anyways. The second is that insurance is really not built into the system the way it is for human medicine, and it can be potentially dangerous to have to delay diagnostics or treatment for your pet while you figure out if the certain problem is going to be covered.
I did choose to have accident insurance for my pet the first year I had her. It was with 24hrpetwatch and it covered very basic accidents- hit by car,broken bone, foreign body ingestion, toxicity- and those things only up to a very limited amount. But it was about $150 for the year and I just got my idiot dog and didn't know what kind of adventures she was going to get into. It was worth having it when I was in college to know I wouldn't have to make potentially difficult choices about the quality of care I provided for her.

doclago

Trupanion is the easiest for us to deal with for many reasons...

They will pay the doctor directly is you get pre-approval..which is a huge weight off the client's shoulders  in the event of something big. 

They don't often question and requestion the medical records.

Claims are paid quickly

they do not cover expected costs:office visits, vaccines, neutering...but on sick visits they pay 90% less your office visit and deductible.  IN the event of big bills most vets will have you leave the bottom end of the estimate as a deposit....so getting pre approval is the difference between having to pay say $500 vs $3000 our of pocket. 

Monthly rates are affordable. 

This in combination with Care Credit is invaluable!! Care credit is s medical CC you can use for yourself also.  It's a synchrony bank card. You can get several months interest free payments. 

Other insurances pay a set price (like human insurance).

doclago

Something you all need to realize is that if your pet ends up needing surgery or specialty care you WILL NOT get a payment plan most likely and you will be forced to apply for care credit if you need one.

If your vet knows you have Trupanion, they will often offer to get you pre approved and have the check sent directly to them. I used to do this all the time in private practice, and it was invaluable....dog attacks that require $1500 worth of care, abdominal surgeries that cost upwards of $2000 with hospital care, kitties who get renal failure and are in the hospital coasts $2-3000.

IF you dog gets HBC and needs to have fracture repairs, you can spend upwards of $5000. Bloat surgery is $3000-5000, hip replacement is $5000+ pet hip.   Cruciate repair is $2000+ per knee...

You all have been very lucky your pets haven't had a true severe emergency...

Pet insurance and care credit save lots of these patients...