Any experience with pet health insurance

[dougp26364]

Recently our last dog passed away. Towards the end of end of her life vet bills and prescription meds had become somewhat costly with medications costing near.y $400/month plus prescription pet food and regular vet visits. 13 years ago when I looked into pet insurance the list of exclusions was horrific and included Cushing’s, which was the major source of our expenses.

We’ve decided on one more puppy in our lifetime and I’ve once again begun the research. We’ve found our breeder (we fell in love with Scottish Terriers years ago) and have a puppy reserved with plans to pick him up next month. We’ve researched local veterinarian options and have located one we like that is still independent (most are now corporate owned and profit driven). Our breeder suggested pet insurance and I’ve begun the research into options. I’ve been happy to learn most will pay similar to human health insurance without all the exclusions for the most common ailments associated with individual breeds.

I was wondering if other TUGGER’s have purchased and filed claims with a pet insurance company and what the experience has been?

 

[Thomfam]

We had Nationwide for years with our two dogs. The plan covered well and illness care. There was a $250 deductible and then 90% coverage. It was pricey but each year I calculated cost and always came out ahead even if a small amount. The last year of our oldest dogs life it was a wonderful as she had major medical issues. Then the price shot up for our 11 y/o lab so I cancelled it. I would price it out again if we ever ended up getting another puppy/dog as the plan was excellent. I would receive payment usually before my credit card payment came due.
I recently saw Costo is offering Pet Insurance which may be worth looking into.

 

[wackymother]

We had Nationwide for years with our two dogs. The plan covered well and illness care. There was a $250 deductible and then 90% coverage. It was pricey but each year I calculated cost and always came out ahead even if a small amount. The last year of our oldest dogs life it was a wonderful as she had major medical issues. Then the price shot up for our 11 y/o lab so I cancelled it. I would price it out again if we ever ended up getting another puppy/dog as the plan was excellent. I would receive payment usually before my credit card payment came due.
I recently saw Costo is offering Pet Insurance which may be worth looking into.

We had Pets Best with our previous dog, and I was happy with it, but then it got so expensive when she got to be about 15 or so that we dropped it.

I think our vet recommended Lemonade and I'm going to look into that when we switch this year.

We now have Figo through Costco and I'm not happy with it. Our cat had an eye emergency, we went to the emergency vet, they examined the eye and prescribed medication. When the claim went through, the medication was covered, but not the examination of the eye! We have a $750 deductible, so even if the exam had been covered, we would not have been at our deductible.

This was the second time something similar had happened w Figo and their phone customer service is not very good. I thought the first time was a mistake, but apparently it was not. So not only are wellness exams not covered (which is fine, we planned on paying those ourselves to lower the cost of the insurance), but also EMERGENCY exams are not covered!

 

[clifffaith]

Recently our last dog passed away. Towards the end of end of her life vet bills and prescription meds had become somewhat costly with medications costing near.y $400/month plus prescription pet food and regular vet visits. 13 years ago when I looked into pet insurance the list of exclusions was horrific and included Cushing’s, which was the major source of our expenses.

We’ve decided on one more puppy in our lifetime and I’ve once again begun the research. We’ve found our breeder (we fell in love with Scottish Terriers years ago) and have a puppy reserved with plans to pick him up next month. We’ve researched local veterinarian options and have located one we like that is still independent (most are now corporate owned and profit driven). Our breeder suggested pet insurance and I’ve begun the research into options. I’ve been happy to learn most will pay similar to human health insurance without all the exclusions for the most common ailments associated with individual breeds.

I was wondering if other TUGGER’s have purchased and filed claims with a pet insurance company and what the experience has been?

Looking forward to baby Scottie pictures!

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

The best thing to do is get your pet insured when it is 100% healthy. Most will not cover pre-existing conditions, always look at what is included and what is excluded.

 

[jp10558]

I have to say we got some insurance for a Newfoundland, and it really didn't cover much. It had lots of exclusions and limitations, and also was $70 a month IIRC. We checked a lot of options, and this was the best we could find in our area. I don't think it was / is / worth it really. It's really only intended to cover accidents I think, not illness, and they always thought the vets charged more than they should have for the services, across multiple vets - some cheaper than others. IDK where they were pricing their vet costs, but it wasn't anywhere in upstate NY.

 

[dougp26364]

I have to say we got some insurance for a Newfoundland, and it really didn't cover much. It had lots of exclusions and limitations, and also was $70 a month IIRC. We checked a lot of options, and this was the best we could find in our area. I don't think it was / is / worth it really. It's really only intended to cover accidents I think, not illness, and they always thought the vets charged more than they should have for the services, across multiple vets - some cheaper than others. IDK where they were pricing their vet costs, but it wasn't anywhere in upstate NY.

This was our experience with our last dogs back in 2013. What insurance I could find was expensive and excluded the most common illnesses for the breed. That}acts why we didn’t buy it at that time.
Most of what I’ve looked at recently has been closer to regular human health insurance covering everything except routine visits, vaccinations and dental care with max yearly payouts from $5,000 to unlimited. Some have riders for an additional cost that covers some routine health check ups and vaccines, but those riders are pretty limited in what they’ll pay compared to the cost. The vet clinic were probably going to use has a program that amounts to pre-paid services that covers vaccines and can cover up to unlimited services and a 5-15% discount on non-covered services.
We’ll probably go with a combination of pet insurance with an unlimited yearly maximum and the vets wellness program. The wellness program costs about the same as the routine medical care rider but pays better when it comes to check ups and vaccines.
At the moment Spot is what I’m leaning towards. I plan on asking breeder and our vet their thoughts about which companies pay their claims and which companies have a habit of denying claims. Because we work Medicare advantage plans and know that the one that offers the most isn’t necessarily the one that approves the claims the best. It won’t do us any good to have great coverage if claims are typically denied.

 

[dougp26364]

The best thing to do is get your pet insured when it is 100% healthy. Most will not cover pre-existing conditions, always look at what is included and what is excluded.

We plan to take out insurance the day we pick the puppy up at the breeder

 

[jp10558]

This was our experience with our last dogs back in 2013. What insurance I could find was expensive and excluded the most common illnesses for the breed. That}acts why we didn’t buy it at that time.
Most of what I’ve looked at recently has been closer to regular human health insurance covering everything except routine visits, vaccinations and dental care with max yearly payouts from $5,000 to unlimited. Some have riders for an additional cost that covers some routine health check ups and vaccines, but those riders are pretty limited in what they’ll pay compared to the cost.

Yea, we thought it covered more - I swear it even claimed to cover spaying, but 2 years later when we could spay the dog, nope, not covered. IDK if they changed the coverage in the middle or just mislead us badly in the wellness coverage. It also excluded the common breed issue the dog ended up having at about a year old, so did nothing for the thousands of dollars in treatments and surgery. Granted it was about 2.5 years ago, and in NY so of course I'm sure what's offered today in Kansas is different - but I don't even think you can trust the policy explainers or what i could make out from the legalese. Because, how far would you fight an incorrect denial when the cap is like $5,000 anyway?

Maybe some are better, but I'm still pretty convinced that you'd be better off taking $70-$100 a month and putting it into a savings account and at least have about a grand on hand for stuff after the first year, and more over time if there was an emergency. It's also problematic that even when they did cover things, they didn't actually cover the percentage claimed, it was always 10-15% less than that because they cover say 90% of what they allow for the cost, but there's no vets that charge the allowed cost.

 

[isisdave]

We have Fetch. It's reasonable, like under $300 per year (for $15k coverage and $350 deductible, then 80%), and in fact went down 20% when we moved from CA to IN. We've never had a claim, so I can't tell you anything about that. They do offer additional "wellness" coverage where they will cover an annual exam, vaccinations, some dental cleaning, some blood tests and even spaying/neutering etc., but the cost (more than the basic insurance!) seemed to me more than the cost of things they cover EXCEPT maybe in the first year if you're about to spay/neuter.

The very important thing is to carefully read the pre-existing conditions and hereditary/congenital conditions limitations in the actual policy. All policies limit coverage for these, but I have seen policies in which, if you have a claim for a particular condition this year, it is considered a pre-existing condition next year! Watch out for that!

You should also ask the advice of the vet you choose if they like or dislike any in particular plan due to ease of working with them (i.e. does some company regularly demand more documentation than others, reject claims, etc). But because almost all pet insurance requires you to pay the vet and get reimbursed, the vet is insulated from bad coverage and may not be aware.

 

[mrsstats]

I have Healthy Paws for my 2 rescues. The 1st year we had them my male dog got sick and the bills were over $7,000. We had to pay the deductible and 20% of the bill but it was much better than footing the entire amount. I have a friend who also used them for her dog and he had health problems for years and they were covered.

 

[Pennytx]

The only experience I have is with Banfield
You pay $50 or less per month
It covers shots, general visits etc
I’ve used it for three years
Never had any issues

 

[easyrider]

We have owned six dogs with no insurance. My guess it cost us about $1000 a dog for vet bills. Three of the dogs lived past 12 years old. Two were in accidents that killed them. One was given to a family last summer.

Our largest cost with the one we gave away was pet sitters. Especially because we planned on traveling more. The pet sitter cost over 12 years calculated out to over $3500 per year or maybe $42,000 in 12 years. Our other dogs were good with babies and small kids but our last dog wasnt is the main reason we gave her away.

Ive never heard of pet innsurance. Until now .

Bill