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Pet Insurance thread

tequila4kapp

tequila4kapp

Tom Watson called to say “Hi”
Albatross 2024 Club
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I'm looking at a somewhat bigger bill in my near future and thought I'd check with THPrs about insurance.

Do you have it? Do they pay the claims properly? Do you pay the full amount up front then get reimbursed or do they pay the vet directly? Any type of waiting period or pre-x exclusions? Any companies better than the rest?
 
I used to have for a cat we owned. Seemed like I broke even but had to do more work. You get reimbursed from the company based on what procedure you animal had (check up, x-ray) The only time I would see it being worth it is if they had something catastrophic happen. They also dont cover pre existing conditions. I would pass but just my .02
 
My only bit of advice is to check with your vet to see what insurance they recommend. I have looked at it, but never pulled the trigger.
 
Interesting topic, I was thinking about this a lot lately
 
We looked into it when the vet suggested my dog undergo a $6K MRI. From what I saw, the policies were terrible and getting coverage for various procedures seemed to be an exercise in futility. Maybe there is a company out there that issues a decent policy, but I didn't see it.
 
I have policies on all three of my dogs with Embrace Pet Insurance. I have a $500.00 deductible per dog and after the deductible its an 80/20 reimbursement. I use whatever vet I want and it covers everything except genetic defects. Claims are paid within days and their customer service is great. I pay the bill up front and submit the claim after the fact. I have never had a single issue being paid for a claim.

They recently changed the policy to deduct $50.00 from the deductible per pet for every year I don't file a claim as well.

I have a 8 year old yellow lab, a 7 year old Golden Retriever and a 3 year old Cardigan Welsh Corgi and my monthly rate is approx. $80.00.
 
GolferGal said:
I know Smallville has some experience with this, I bet he can help answer some questions.
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We had VPI Pet Insurance on our dogs since 2010. The only time it would have been beneficial is if we had had it when Bandit got sick. So we are dropping it as they renew. We dropped Tara a couple months ago, and Charlie will be in August or September. Just decided to let it go. No issues and no complaints either way.

I will say you should only get the Urgent Care part of it, not the wellness program. Or at least add it all that you spend before getting it. Our vet charges WAY less than the cost of the wellness program.
 
I've been close to purchasing a few times, especially since my company started including it as an option in their medical care options. But as has been said previously, after doing a detailed analysis of my pet spending, i'd probably break even, and end up doing more work to get reimbursed. That, and as cold as it sounds, by dogs are getting to the age know where it's probably not fiscally responsible for major surgery should something catastrophic happen. I feel terrible saying something like that outloud because I love them...but i love my children more and spending 5-10K on reconstructive knee surgery (for example), versus putting that towards my kids college education, is a no brainer to me.
 
Smallville said:
We had VPI Pet Insurance on our dogs since 2010. The only time it would have been beneficial is if we had had it when Bandit got sick. So we are dropping it as they renew. We dropped Tara a couple months ago, and Charlie will be in August or September. Just decided to let it go. No issues and no complaints either way.

I will say you should only get the Urgent Care part of it, not the wellness program. Or at least add it all that you spend before getting it. Our vet charges WAY less than the cost of the wellness program.
Click to expand...
Just to elaborate a little, I had been on the fence for a few months about whether or not to get it when Bandit got sick with a blood platelet disease. So by the time I decided to get it on Tara, it was too late to get it on Bandit.

We have never used it, so I couldn't tell you if they are a good company or not, as far as how they process claims or how easy they are to work with. They were highly rated, and not the most expensive ones out there so that is why we went with them. Sorry I can't tell you if it was worth it or not. We had the peace of mind knowing our dogs were covered, but have no idea if the company would have been had we made a claim.

On other one I learned about later (and it was the one our vet recommended) was TruPanion. Seems like they were about the same rates, but I didn't ever switch.
 
VPI would have you pay and they would reimburse you. I would think most if not all of them work the same way.
 
We have a policy, I think through ASPCA. We have a pug, and pugs tend to have a lot of health problems. I think we pay about $50 per month. So far, we haven't had to use it.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. At $30-$50 per month, with the deductible and the probability of 80/20, I am not sure this makes financial sense for us.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Thanks for the info everyone. At $30-$50 per month, with the deductible and the probability of 80/20, I am not sure this makes financial sense for us.
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May not, but having been on the other end of 1-2K bills, I would rather have the security of knowing my pet will be cared for rather then the alternative.
 
I had insurance on some roping horses years ago. I always paid out of pocket but was reimbursed pretty quickly if I recall correctly.
The only issue I had was when I had to put one down. I had to submit a notarized "death certificate" singed by half the county it seemed but they eventually paid out.
If you're interested, I'll check back & see if I can find their name.
 
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