To Insure...or Not to Insure....
 

Hi! I would love to get feedback from all of you on whether or not you have pet insurance on your babies.

I recently had to take Mason to an emergency room and the bill came out to be $322 :eek: for less than an hour visit. Even though he is perfectly healthy right now, the ER visit got me thinking, Mason could get sick/injured at any time.

Does anyone have pet insurance and if so, what kind? What is the cost? Do you find it helpful?? Thanks so much everyone :)

petinsurance.com

I use it, my sister uses it, it's pretty good. No problems yet, but Emma is only 4 months, I just sent off my first claim for her shots. My sister's dog is 2 and she loves it and has used it as long as she's had her. I think the cost is $22/month or so...

17/month for Stewie. I just looked at the site and got a quote. Hmmm... could be worth it. I'll have to think more about it.

I have Banfield pet insurance, and it cost me $100.00 to join, then $19.00 per month for the first year since I have a puppy. Then after that I think it goes to $12-$15 a month. It’s well worth it though. Plus you get discounts on other things. http://www.petsmart.com/banfield/index.shtml

Oh, God. I have pet insurance for Otis with Premier Pet Insurance, who got bought out by antoher company taht I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway, they're charging me somewhere around 40-something bucks a month, but Otis has premium coverage meaning they cover 80 percent of his teeth cleaning, all of his flea medication, heart worm medication, just about any visit.

If I had to go back, I probably wouldn't have done it because I think I've paid WAY MORE to insurance than actual vet visits. But now that I'm hearing all these stories about older dogs having to get treatment and running up a bill, I'm afraid to cancel Otis's inusrance.

Bodhi just got the Banfield insurance as well. It seems that it doesn't cover serious problems and is only limited to office hours.

I'm looking into insurance that covers emergency room visits and surgeries.

Best Thing You Can Do
 

I just got done reading a VERY informative article in one of my many dog magazines on pet insurance. And here is what I did for Bounce when I got him. I set up a bank account in my name, specifically FOR Bouncer (and my other animals as well). Every month, I add anywhere between $50-$70 to that bank account. I use that money for their shots, meds, anything. And if the event something serious happens, I've already saved money for that purpose. Think of it this way. If you get insurance and nothing ever happens to your dog, you don't ever see that money again. If you don't get insurance and something happens and you haven't saved, you're screwed. That's why I set up the account for Bounce and everyone else in my animal family. If something never happens, then that's more money I can put towards a new bed or something else or just save it for future vet costs. It's worked for me so well. Plus, I just find it a pain to pay the vet in full, then file a claim, then wait for your money to come back that the insurance covered. It's just time consuming. Anyways, hope that helps you out some. It's done very well for me to just save into an account specifically made for my pets.

Liz! We have a "pet account" as well! I had looked into getting pet insurance but decided that our way was working for us so why change it? Sandy has run us just over $1400 in vet bills in the year we've had her, but we've never been sideswiped by the bills since we set aside every month for the pet account...

Of course the pet account doesn't cover clothes and other goodies ;)

That's how I do mine as well. I use "my own" money to buy everything from clothes to treats and such. It's helped so much just putting the money aside like I would for my car payments and insurance, etc. Makes life so much easier. I just feel ripped off if I buy insurance and never ever see it working for me. I've been lucky and never really have problems that require vet assistance, so why pay more in insurance than I do in vet bills?! lol But it's nice to have it there in case I need it. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this! I know the person who set up my account at the bank thought I was completely insane. haha :p

Pet insurance
 

Well since I am a single income woman in SOCAL where even though I make around $50k a year, I clear less than half of that, and spend $12k a year on rent with no utilities covered, and i just had an emergency overdose for one of my boys, four days in hospital, IVs, meds, special diet, etc. My bill for those 4 days was almost $2k. I had sent for the applications the week BEFORE for pet insurance and with three hopefully four pets soon, I will buy pet insurance. PetCare insurance is only $14 a month with a 10% discount on each additional pet with a $2000 per incident. learned my lesson the hard way.

Wow, thanks everyone for your input. This is a hard decision.....but the idea of "pet account" never occurred to me and it's a great idea! I might consider that option :rolleyes:

Wouldn't it be nice if they had doggie medical savings accounts??? I don't know, I will have two dogs soon and I am putting alot of thought in to this. So far Aimee's idea is the one I am going with.