Best pet health insurance? Rara probably needs it...

[lancerandrara]

For whoever isn't aware, Rara has been a pretty frail and sickly little dog for the entirety of her 5 years of life. :s Today she's been panting every once in awhile even while resting for no clear reason, so another vet visit on Monday is probably needed... In the end, my mom and I decided we should probably get her dog health insurance, if it's worthwhile?

What's the best insurance to get? Basically, any info on dog health insurance would be great, because this is the first time we've considered it!

 

[BostonBanker]

I've only dealt with horse insurance, not small animal, so maybe there would be some differences. But the monthly cost to insure a 5 year old with health issues, and taking into account that previous issues will probably be exempted... you may be better off just putting the money you would spend on insurance aside in a specific fund for her medical bills.

Hopefully someone who has more experience with dog insurance will be able to step in and confirm if the same sort of rules apply. My next dog will be insured as soon as I get it; I've just got a cardboard box I shove spare cash into for my "insurance" for them now!

 

[*blackrose]

It all depends on the way you prefer to handle your money, your dog, and the policy you go with.

One thing to realize, for a 5 year old dog, is that insurance will not cover preexisting conditions. Had a bad flare up of allergies years back? Insurance will not cover allergies now. Had severe GI issues once? Now no GI issues will be covered. Etc, etc. So look very carefully at what is considered a preexisting condition and what is not.

I personally have heard very good reviews regarding Trupanion pet insurance. Our rep was awesome to work with and our clients never had any issues filing a claim. So they would be a company I'd look in to, personally.

 

[PWCorgi]

I have Trupanion (insured Siri the week she came home), and I haven't had to use it yet, but I'm not worried about things being covered and that's nice. I also need to contact them and see about moving my deductible to $0.

 

[lancerandrara]

Oh man, thanks for the replies, guys!

I looked into Trupanion, and it looks like they only cover things that are a FOR SURE non-existing, like a broken leg or sudden injuries. If Rara developed a new ulcer somewhere, they would claim it pre-existing, according to some owners... I'm not sure how dependable it is in the long run.

PWCorgi: What are you experiences so far with Trupanion? I'm not sure which reviews to believe, currently. :s Help me Lawd.

 

[Southpaw]

My understanding with Trupanion is they only go back 18 months, so anything in that time frame is pre-existing, but if it happened say 2 years ago and hasn't been an issue since... then that's not pre-existing. No company is going to cover pre-existing.

I've never really looked into insurance but from what I know Trupanion seems like one of the better ones IMO.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

I would put the money into savings as well.

I tried to insure Nia through Trupanion last year at 5 years old. Other than having a dental, she had no pre-existing conditions. Even with a $300-500 deductible, my monthly total was quoted to be around $55-70, which is way too much for me to pay.

Next time I would try to insure my dog as a puppy to see if that's a lot better.

 

[Southpaw]

The thing with just putting money into savings, is that when things come up that you aren't prepared for... do you really have enough money put away to cover the cost? Even if I just have a $1000 bill, if I'm putting away $50 a month into savings it's still going to take me almost 2 years to have that amount saved up.

It's definitely less expensive to start them as puppies, and your monthly premium is also going to be affected by how many dogs of your breed are registered. The more claims that are filed amongst your breed = higher premiums for all dogs of that breed. So if you have 2 unhealthy dogs of breed XYZ but there are only 10 XYZ that are registered, statistically it looks like an unhealthy breed that is going to cost the company a lot of money. But if you have those same 2 unhealthy dogs except there are 100 dogs registered... they look a little healthier now. We were told that folks with goldendoodles and the like should just suck it up and register their dog as a "mixed breed" because the pool of dogs will be much greater, and therefore their monthly premium will be lower.

 

[FransterDoo]

I have Trupanion on my two youngest dogs. Happy to answer any questions!

 

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

I would definitely consider pet insurance for puppies/young dogs. When there aren't any pre-existing conditions, and the premiums are low, and whatnot.

Personally, I went with the savings/CareCredit route. I had a "veterinary" account that I out money into each paycheck, and then I used CareCredit as well. If I had a $500 vet bill, I put the whole thing on CareCredit, and paid it off within six months (interest free period) using the money from my "vet account" - at the same time while still contributing to it from my paycheck. That way my CareCredit balance never got super high, and my account balance didn't get too low.

I work at a clinic right now, and we get AMAZING discounts. So I'm contributing less to the veterinary account now.

 

[PWCorgi]

I have yet to need to use my Trupanion (yay!), but my understanding is that they can't really say anything is pre-existing with Siri because she's been insured since she's been a 12 week old puppy. I also went ahead and switched my deductible to $0, and I have Rider A (covers all the extra crap like chiro and such), and my bill is still only $50 per month.

 

[release the hounds]

I have yet to need to use my Trupanion (yay!), but my understanding is that they can't really say anything is pre-existing with Siri because she's been insured since she's been a 12 week old puppy. I also went ahead and switched my deductible to $0, and I have Rider A (covers all the extra crap like chiro and such), and my bill is still only $50 per month.

That's still 600 a year, and is it good at any vet or just certain vets? and does it go up as your dog gets older? I can't imagine spending 600 a year for "insurance" over the course of 10-15 years. Over 12 years that's 7200 dollars. In the past 15 I've had one instance of about 800 bucks I had to spend on a surgery. Otherwise it's rabies shots every 3 years, and I can get those for about 2 months worth of premiums.

I know nothing of pet insurance really other than I hope it goes away actually. I like that I can afford care for my animals, I hate to see the prices and a system grow exponentially because of 3rd party pay like they have in medical field for humans.

Just wait, it will, if it every takes hold. in a decade or 2, prices will rise and your 60 dollar x-rays will be 300 dollar x-rays and you'll have 1500 dollars a year in premiums and a 50 dollar co-pay and all insurance will do is mean you're paying double out of pocket to have most work done anyway.

3rd party pay does a lot to a system. it allows a lot more money to flow in, prices rise, people chose more care thinking more is better, more intervention, more costly intervention, etc because Insurance will pay for it. It's a large part of the reason health care on the human side is so outrageous.

 

[RBark]

A lot if people don't actually save the money they say they will. For a lot of people, $50/mo is a lot of money but easier to manage than sudden thousand dollar bills.

I don't use insurance but only because I am fortunate enough for it to not be a concern.

 

[SpringerLover]

I have Trupanion because I don't want money to be a deciding factor in the care of my dog during an emergency/urgent situation. And I don't want to have to ask others for money either.

I pay $65/month with a $500 deductible. Gabby is kind of a train wreck but they will still cover anything new that comes up.

All of my other pets are too old...

 

[release the hounds]

A lot if people don't actually save the money they say they will. For a lot of people, $50/mo is a lot of money but easier to manage than sudden thousand dollar bills.

I don't use insurance but only because I am fortunate enough for it to not be a concern.

I know people don't save, spending is more fun

But it's 50 bucks now, for a puppy, what about when the dog is 7? How much per year then? and what happens when they're 9? do they renew your contract? 5400 dollars paid in, assuming there is never an increase in premium and assuming there is never a deductible or any out of pocket expense other than premium, and no claims they decide you're a risk. What then? Can they do that? They've done it to people for a long, long time, is the pet industry different?

50-70 dollars a month PLUS 3-500 dollar deductibles? You're paying for it all anyway. at 70 a month and a 500 dollar deductible is well on your way to 1500 dollars and that's before your "insurance" pays for anything. I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't spent 1500 on 5-6 animals in a year in the past 15 at least, including the year I had an 800 dollar surgery.

yeah, i'd rather pay 50 bucks than a grand, but I certainly don't see how paying for the vet care i use 4-5 times in the course of a year for the life of an animal makes any sense either. Even when I take out a mortgage i'm not paying that much above what i'm getting and I get to live in a house at least.

 

[BostonBanker]

I have spent more than $1500 in a day on two of my three animals (thank you Meg for being my low cost dog!). Insurance would have paid for itself easily with Tristan; I probably had around 10k in bills over about 5 years. It probably would have paid for itself with Gusto between his poisoning (2500) and his orthopedic issues. And I would have lost money on insurance for Meg. That's how it works. Some people have to take the hit to pay for those that benefit.

Like I said, my next dog I will insure as a puppy. It isn't worth it for mine now, between age and pre existing issues. So for them, it is savings and credit cards if something happens.

 

[RBark]

I was making no implication in regard to why people do not save the money, releasethehounds. There are a lot of things in life that can decaminate someone's savings that are unrelated to fun. My point only is that the money put into insurance is money that a person can't access later for an unrelated emergency expense, and many people find that beneficial.

It's ultimately a question with no right and wrong. I recently heard a story from someone I know who works in, Trupanion I believe, where someone on a trail period with the insurance got covered for tens of thousands of dollars. Now if that's not worth it, I do not know what is.

That is an exceptional situation just like saying a dog never needed medical bills for 15 years. Wonderful for sure but no guarantee of that. The real question to be asking is, if you were to get slammed with a 5 grand bill all of sudden, would you be able to manage it? If not, would $50/mo be worth it to avoid the risk of that happening so you don't have to make a painful decision due to your means?

Just my opinion. I mostly just wanted to clarify that I don't hold any prejudiced belief that the only reason people wouldn't save monthly if they don't do insurance is because of fun and bad spending habits.

 

[release the hounds]

I was making no implication in regard to why people do not save the money, releasethehounds. There are a lot of things in life that can decaminate someone's savings that are unrelated to fun. My point only is that the money put into insurance is money that a person can't access later for an unrelated emergency expense, and many people find that beneficial.

It's their money, I don't really care what people spend it on, but concerning other things than "fun" that decimate savings, well those things decimate your ability to pay a 50 dollar a month premium.

My guess is if people find themselves unable to put 50 bucks in savings, they can't put 50 bucks towards insurance, unless of course an insurance bill forces them to spend less on "fun" stuff, in which case, they could save too because it's there for saving, but they choose to spend it on other stuff. Which brings me to my original assertion, that spending is more fun than saving

For they guy that got tens of thousands in coverage on a trial period. think of all the people that will pay 5 fold their medical bills and get nothing for it each year for the life of their dogs, it's how this stuff works.

I think money should always be a consideration, otherwise nobody is faced with a decision. Intervention and more invasive and expensive intervention isn't always the best answer and by NOT having to consider all the variables, it becomes very easy to just "do more" because "insurance is paying for it".

and that is the trend, we have 40+ years of real world data showing how insurance changes attitudes in not only consumers, but providers. It increases not only insurance costs, but overall costs with everything associated to it. I guess I just like to able to afford my vet care for my animals and hate to see the day that a simple vet visit with minor blood work to actually doctor a problem out for 100 bucks or so goes poof, in favor of the overly expensive "insurance" discount card type system we have in human health care.

 

[RBark]

You are oversimplifying complex issues and taking multiple logical leaps in addition to applying stereotypes and working towards proving it.

So I'll just simplify it in two ways;

1) That's just like, your opinion man.
2) It's a complex subject that varies based on a honest assessment of ones own economic situation and their risk tolerance level.

 

[release the hounds]

of course I keep it simple, because simple works. Even the most complex issues are rather simple at the heart. You can make any issue as simple or complex as you'd like. I often find that "complex" is just another way of using "excuses" or "reasons" if that word isn't as offensive to you?

Multiple logical leaps and stereotypes, NOT applied by me, but maybe by you, aside, and I'm well aware these are like, your opinion woman