Pet Insurance? Any thoughts?? Any suggestions????
 

I am giving serious thought to purchasing "Pet Insurance". Anybody out there have any positive or maybe negative comments? Any experiences you could share or suggestions on which one to get? :confused:

Get it before you regret not getting it........ and start with lots of it, cause once you use it you can't increase the amount on existing conditions.

I thought Harley was going to be super healthy and that I wouldn't need it, so I altered my plan. Well he got really sick last year and I have spent about $3-4000 on vet stuff this past year, most of which was covered. I couldn't survive without it. Harley is only 2.5 years btw.

Just do your research on companies and make sure you are comfortable with them. Cause once you're with someone if an existing condition is there you can't switch (well you can but there is no coverage for existing conditions).

I've read good things and bad things. Insurance is always a gamble, they are in the business to make money and they are gambling you will pay more to them then they will pay to you. If you have no credit or savings, it's not a bad gamble, and is probably a good idea, but even then you might want to check out several companies and read the fine print. Some will pay for lots of things including spaying, but you might be limited on the doctors you can use. Here's some good information. ConsumerReports.org - Pets & vets, is pet insurance worth it? 7/03

IMHO pet insurance is something better done self-underwritten, unless you are of very limited financial means. If you are the latter, though, I would prefer the insurance by far over seeing your kid suffer because you didn't have the money.

For me it is a yes! Just because you never know what is going to happen. My insurance covers all vet visits, shots, some surgery, fecal exams, blood work, and discounts on many other things. So it is a great thing.

Oh and another thing, remember to look to see if you have to pay up front and then wait to be reimbursed; some plans are like that.

Which is one reason why I think self-underwritten pet insurance is usually the better way to go. If you're going to wait to be reimbursed anyway and your worst-case bills are around, say, $4,000, what's the benefit? Insurance is like gambling: the house always wins. Save the paperwork, and save the risk a lot of people don't think of up front: that the insurance company might look for some loophole and not pay up.

JMHO
I will never again have an uninsured dog. My one year old is already a thousand dollar dog. So even with a savings account just for him we would be tapped out already and have to pull from the family savings. Now we will go to a specialist and spend anywhere from four hundred to thousands and thousands because his bladder was put together wrong. This is our low maintenance dog. We thought he would be healthy.:rolleyes: anyway, I used to be of the opinion that a savings account was the better way. Not anymore... We are very thankful that petplan has to pay us back for this.

I don't think people realize just how much specialists cost. Leg and hip repairs are two to five grand. Back surgery is three to seven grand. Liver shunt is two to four grand. etc. etc.

If you are in a financial situation that allows you to not get the money back after you charge it and payments arent a problem..great. If you can't afford to charge without getting reimbursted then insurance is probably a good idea.

May I ask which insurance you have? I've looked at three and they vary in cost only by a few dollars a month depending on what you want your deductible to be.

I am still on the fence with insurance for KS. I need to make up my mind, but in the meantime we have set up a savings account just for her. It has built up a bit, but if something were to happen and the bill be $3000-$4000, we'd be dipping into our own personal savings too. I need to talk to my husband about it again. I'd love to hear others opinions as well.

Try doing a search for this on YT as well. I know I've seen many discussions on the subject since I joined YT. Good luck! :)

Very good information Nancy, thank you so much!!!! It's worth a read for anyone else out there who might be asking the same question as I am. I'm seriously thinking I will take about $35.00 a month (a premium payment on a Pet Insurance Policy) and put it into a Savings Account (Rylee's Medical).

The article didn't mention it, but for me, part of the descison would be based on what I thought of the breeder. While all breeders have dogs that have health risks, you are really reducing your risks by going to a reputable breeder who does health testing and knows her lines. It's the major surgeries that really can throw someone's budget off. Another advantage of going to a reputable breeder is that they will return your purchase price, should the dog have a genetic problem. I think I would also be tempted to buy the insurance, if I bought a rescue because the likelyhood of it being from a byb would increase, and also a tiny whose adult weight was less than 4 pounds. As I said before, the whole thing is a gamble, so you need to factor in the odds that increase the risks of your dog being sickly.

And none of the conditions you describe fell under some pre-existing conditions clause and have or will be covered by this insurance plan? I am definitely interested in that plan. Did you say it is Pet Plan?

Yes that's a great suggestion, so many will not cover "pre-existing conditions", also, some will not cover genetic conditions. It like the only thing they cover is shots, and many of us are against yearly shots anyways.

Some companies cover per existing and genetic conditions if they are not yet diagnosed and there are no symptoms present before the waiting period is up. There are exclusions, but I think petplan is very fair. Sometimes I think the negative reviews come from people that didn't read the fine print, but we haven't had insurance for too long, so my jury is still out on the company. There is a six month waiting period before knees are covered, but if a vet clears them then the waiting period is waived. Some companies also consider a condition pre existing when the new insurance year starts and they no longer cover it, so you have o be very careful.

Even a few nights in the hospital for pancreatitis is thousands. When the heart or kidneys start to fail hospital monitoring at the ER is extremely expensive because it's hard to manage. Diabetes can get really expensive. Addison's and cushings. Then there are the more advanced things like cancer..some owners choose chemo or radiation. If you'd want o see an oncologist and go all out it will add up. Intestinal issues which are so common in yorkies get really spendy over time. A diagnostic endoscopy with biopsy is a thousand plus.

It's really no fun to see almost totally healthy animals come into the ER and get euthanized because somebody couldn't do a couple grand. It's understandable, but vey sad.

Now that Ive scared everybody, I have to go give Ry his bladder antibiotic and Ellie her pain meds.:rolleyes: