pet insurance

[cruiz30]

We are in the process of getting a rescue dog. I need some advice and suggestions on pet insurance.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SharonZ]

Do your research, there are a lot of different companies and package levels. Also check with your vet, ours (VCA) offers their own pet insurance. The best value is when you purchase the insurance when your dog is a puppy and not when he is older and/or has pre-existing conditions.

 

[jenf22]

I found this:

http://www.caninejournal.com/pet-insurance-comparison/

We've chosen not to get pet insurance and instead we put about $400 a month into a savings account and pay all our pet expenses from there. We have 3 cats and 2 dogs so insurance would be really pricey. We recognize it's a gamble, but this way the money is still put aside and is ours when we need it. Good luck with your search.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

When I got my parrot, I considered pet insurance. But it made more sense to me to just set money aside each month, especially since parrots can live a long time. I took the monthly quote from the insurance, opened a high interest savings account and set aside that amount each month into the account. Every year I adjust the amount based on inflation to keep it up. Over the past 10 years, I have saved several thousand dollars for him. When he needed to go to the emergency vet last year for a broken beak, the cost ($300) was there to cover the expense.

 

[Debbie Jean]

With my sweet pup, Happy, who passed away over the summer, I had 24Petwatch for over 14 years. It was expensive and they had limits on payments for the life of the policy... something like $3000 per illness category. They were also very slow in processing claims. It was the first time I ever purchased pet insurance so I wasn't very savvy about what to look for.

I recently adopted a 1 year old cavalier mix, Nemo. After looking at reviews and comparing options, I went with Healthy Paws. It is unlimited lifetime coverage, an annual $100 deductible with 90% reimbursement. Cost is $35 a month. One of the things that helped persuade me to go with them is that claims can be filed online and folks say they process the claims quickly.

I don't mind paying for pet insurance. The way I look at it, I buy other insurance... home, auto, etc.... with the hope of never having to use it. But it's there if I need it!

 

[wilkeliza]

We don't buy pet insurance. It really is only "worth" it if your pet ends up needing costly treatments. We are fortunate that a couple grand in medical bills won't derail us. We just put money aside in our emergency fund and hope we never have to use it. We couldn't justify the 50 - 75 a month (yay NYC) that the insurance places wanted.

 

[supersnoop]

I went with Healthy Paws. It is unlimited lifetime coverage, an annual $100 deductible with 90% reimbursement. Cost is $35 a month.

How expensive is a typical problem? You're spending $520 annually before they start to cover anything. That seems like a lot to me.

 

[wilkeliza]

How expensive is a typical problem? You're spending $520 annually before they start to cover anything. That seems like a lot to me.

A "typical" dog should only cost 100-200 a year at the vet depending on shots etc. Once your dog get's older you may spend 300-600 for cleanings and tooth extractions. If you start putting the 520 in a emergency fund account the extra 300-400 a year while they are young will cover the dental issues later in life etc. Of course these are NYC prices. It is probably much much cheaper elsewhere and you can get shots at low cost clinics for 20-30 for the entire year with out the yearly exam fee that brings us up to the 100 total.

Our most expensive cost for a pup to date was for a deep cleaning and tooth extraction. Our puppies neuter is going to cost something like 600 including a microchip at a very nice vet in NYC.

 

[Debbie Jean]

How expensive is a typical problem? You're spending $520 annually before they start to cover anything. That seems like a lot to me.

If you have a dog that is healthy all their life then you are truly blessed. I went through surgery for canine hip displesia, $3000+. Happy was a seizure dog for 12+ years so constant medication, regular costly blood work to monitor liver enzymes, probably $1000 per year, for the last 5 years of her life degenerative disc disease in her back so regular treatment with steroids, both pills and injections, another $700-1000 per year. These were the ongoing conditions. That doesn't count the ear infections, skin issues, digestive and stomach problems that would crop up from time to time. Happy was the love of my life but she was a dog that had lots of health issues.

For me $35/month, $420 annually is an absolute buy and well worth it. As I said, if you have never had to face this, then you are indeed fortunate. BTW, I am in northern New Jersey and vet care here is very, very expensive. Not much I can do about that except shop wisely for the best, most economical options.

 

[Debbie Jean]

A "typical" dog should only cost 100-200 a year at the vet depending on shots etc. Once your dog get's older you may spend 300-600 for cleanings and tooth extractions. If you start putting the 520 in a emergency fund account the extra 300-400 a year while they are young will cover the dental issues later in life etc. Of course these are NYC prices. It is probably much much cheaper elsewhere and you can get shots at low cost clinics for 20-30 for the entire year with out the yearly exam fee that brings us up to the 100 total.

Our most expensive cost for a pup to date was for a deep cleaning and tooth extraction. Our puppies neuter is going to cost something like 600 including a microchip at a very nice vet in NYC.

None of the routine care you mention is covered by pet insurance. It is for illness, accidents, etc. And like any insurance you don't need it until you need it. People tend to make the decision based on their own experience. Having had a beloved pet who needed thousands of dollars of ongoing medical care, pet insurance is a must for me.

 

[wilkeliza]

None of the routine care you mention is covered by pet insurance. It is for illness, accidents, etc. And like any insurance you don't need it until you need it. People tend to make the decision based on their own experience. Having had a beloved pet who needed thousands of dollars of ongoing medical care, pet insurance is a must for me.

Seems like you don't have the "typical" pet then. I don't know many people who have animals that need more than the routine care. Yes one of our beloved pups could end up needing more care but I'm pretty confident our "emergency" fund would cover whatever it be with us not having to change our lives much. That is fortunate though too as I know now everyone can afford that.

 

[DCbride]

I just purchased health insurance for our 4 month old puppy. After a bit of research and talking with a friend who did lots of research I went with Healthy Paws. This is our third dog since 1988 and the first time I ever purchased insurance.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

We use PetPlan for our two dogs and absolutely love them. Timely checks in the mail, and great coverage, even holistic treatments. I have two dogs, one who has three legs and is *very* issue prone so pet insurance has been a lifesaver for us. We will never not have it and love PetPlan as a company. I have saved so, SO much money.

 

[skylynx]

We have Healthy Paws coverage for our 7 year old and 7 month old golden retrievers. We too avoided health insurance for our dogs, thinking we'd put away a certain amount into an emergency fund each month, but in reality we ended up needing to hit that fund for veterinary treatment for our horses instead! The other reality is that we'd have to invest a lot of money into that fund every month in order to cover expenses that happened in the first couple years of "saving." If the expensive vet episode happened a long way down the road, we'd probably have had the funds to cover it, but if it happened earlier on, there wouldn't have been enough money in the savings account to cover the costs. With 2 dogs and 3 horses, there's no way we could set aside enough money each month to cover the potential catastrophic event for all of them.

Our 9 year old female golden, who we lost last February, had a sudden onset of blindness and internal bleeding precluding surgery. Literally, she was playing outside at 5:00 and in the veterinary ICU fighting for her life at 9:00. Two thousand dollars and two days later she was beyond hope and we had to euthanize her. Just the overnight stay was $800, and we had a two-page itemized list of charges without even any treatment beyond examinations...just the tests and overnight surveillance. If she had been a candidate for surgery, it would have also required a series of blood transfusions and the estimated cost would have been over $7000. Which if she'd had a chance of surviving, we would have paid for even though it would have been a huge financial hit for us. We decided we'd rather hedge against that happening with our other dogs and be covered in the worst case scenario. Healthy Paws was the only one, after a lot of research, I felt would be compatible for what we needed. We can somewhat control our risk vs. cost by choosing a greater or lesser percentage of reimbursement and lower or higher deductibles at Healthy Paws. I still worry about the horses, but at least if either of the dogs gets cancer or some other cost-prohibitive-to-treat condition, we will be able to pay for it.

 

[SharonZ]

You can purchase pet insurance that includes wellness visits, including vaccinations and routine dental cleanings.