Tuesday, August 23, 2011

To Insure or Not to Insure?

I've never had pet insurance. Back when Kaya was my dog, by the time such a thing was well-known she was a geriatric pup with pre-existing medical conditions and I assumed no policy would cover her.  That may or may not have been the case, I didn't think to investigate it at that point.  But now that my money situation is likely to become somewhat precarious, I have been pondering what  preparations I can take in advance to avoid potential financial disaster, and securing pet insurance for Maisie is one step I took.

Not knowing which company to trust, I did some research on the Pet Insurance Review website.  I decided on Petplan because they not only offered three different deductibles and three different coverage plans, they also allow you to choose your reimbursement level once your deductible is met.  Petplan was also very highly rated (9.3 on a 10 point scale) by reviewers.  I opted for the most basic (Bronze) plan, with the highest ($200) deductible but with 100% reimbursement after that.  It will pay the costs of any illness or injury Maisie experiences, up to $8000 total per year.  To my surprise, even alternative therapies were included in the coverage, as long as they are recommended and administered by a licensed vet.  I wish I'd known that was possible years ago, when Kaya was receiving monthly treatments at the holistic vet!  The price of the policy I selected for Maisie is just under $22 per month, and that seemed pretty fair to me.

Best case scenario, Maisie will remain a healthy, injury-free little dog and I will never even need to utilize the insurance.  But considering her crazy, occasionally accident-prone ways, I figured better safe than sorry!

Do you have pet insurance?  If so, what have your experiences been like?  Good/bad?  Please share!

And because we all know who the star of the show is here, I now share with you a photo of Maisie and her antler du jour this morning.  She tried to bring it upstairs with her, but kept dropping it as she attempted to carry it in her mouth and run up the stairs at the same time.  So she settled for a chew session at the bottom of the staircase instead.  Silly silly puppy...

 

p.s. for more frequent Maisie updates and pics, please "like" our Facebook page if you haven't yet!

13 comments:

Kate said...

I don't have pet insurance for my dogs, but I do set aside money each month in case there's an emergency. I guess I'm really my own insurer :) I think having some sort of insurance for our pets is always a good idea. Their care can get so expensive so fast and I would hate to be worrying about money when making medical decisions.

Two Pitties in the City said...

Pet insurance has saved us so much. The only thing you have to watch for is when they hit a certain age, the yearly premium can go up so much...ours went up 40%!

Golden Woofs! SUGAR said...

Woof! Woof! Golden Thanks for this information. Don't have an insurance but wanted to have one but ... I am a senior dog already. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

Beth said...

We use VPI pet insurance for our girl. So far everything has been good. We haven't had to use it for anything major so it has been only paying for check ups and flea and heartworm medication. It's reassuring to know we have it if anything does come up though.

www.truthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com

Froggy said...

I looked in to it for Pug a long tiem ago but they didnt seem to cover anything that was common in certain breeds so I opted not to get it.

Maisie's Mom said...

Froggy, this one seemed to cover just about everything. maybe check it out just for comparison's sake...

sprinkles said...

I used to have a kitty who was a regular visitor to the vet as he had a number of health problems which started from the day I brought him home until the day he died.

I had asked my vet at the time about pet insurance and he didn't think it was a very good idea. He said that he didn't accept it and didn't know of any other vets that would either. I never did get a very good answer from him about why it wasn't accepted.

However, it's been awhile since I considered it. It might be worth looking into again and seeing how it works. I have a different now and they might be willing to accept it!

Maisie's Mom said...

this doesn't go through the vet, you pay the initial cost and then the insurance reimburses you. :)

Jaime said...

We have VPI as well. We use it mostly on our normal checkups and heartworm meds. We recently had to take Izzy for a suspected UTI. Walked out of the vet $400 later. To our surprise, VPI gave us more than 50% back! Hoping we never have any emergencies, but think it will come in handy.

K-Koira said...

I don't have pet insurance. Instead, I try setting aside that same amount of money in case of a pet emergency, and I also have a CareCredit card, which is accepted at most vets, doctors, dentists, and more, in my area, so it serves as a safety net for both my dogs and myself.

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A Confessed Pit Bull Addict said...

We use VPI currently, but find that a lot of our bills are being rejected lately - likely due to what are now pre-existing conditions (like hypothyroidism). I'm actually in process of comparing to Trupanion, which seems to cover a wider range of issues (including pre-existing), allows you to choose your deductible and does for only a couple of extra $$ each month. We'll see....