S/o: Pet Insurance Poll

[Guest cheltzey]

I was really intrigued by the other thread about pet insurance, and it's left me pondering. In the past, financial experts have always advised against pet insurance as a bad investment. However, it seems that now there are more choices, better coverage, and better customer service. After spending over $700 in vet bills in the 2.5 months we've had Lando (my friends joke that I got a lemon!), I'm starting to think that pet insurance makes sense. I've always been against the idea before, but now that I've seen that a simple set of x-rays costs $400, I'm reconsidering. I'm looking into Embrace (I would do Trupanion, but they're not operating in New Mexico). It would only cost about $35 a month for pretty decent coverage, and I think I can be on board with that. I'd love to see how everyone answers the poll!

Edited June 26, 2010 by cheltzey

[seeh2o]

I have Carl & Claire on a Pet First family plan. I have been very very impressed with Pet First, they paid over $1,000 in claims the first year I had Carl quickly and without question. The other thing I like about it is that it is very affordable for me. I have my 14.5 year old non-grey on Pet Care, but it was w-a-y too expensive for greyhounds. My non-grey is a chow/shiba inu mix, clearly purebreds are more expensive with Pet Care. I've been really happy with them, though, too. When Sheila was diagnosed with SARDs I ran up nearly $3,000 in vet bills over a very short period of time and they paid without question, albiet a lot more slowly than Pet First.

[Guest Energy11]

I got pet insurance, because I no longer work for my vet :-( I LOVED my job, but HATED the Florida heat! Had to make a hard choice! Since moving here, I cannot even get a job VOLUNTEERING at a vet here????

 

Anyway, I have five greys, ages 8-10, and I NEED something if they get sick!

 

I have Trupanion with ZERO deductible, costing me $253/monthly for all five, which sounds like a lot, but ONE VET VIST, NOT even an EVET, will cost wayyy more than that!

 

I'd definitely recommend Trupanion!

[Guest Fasave]

I do have insurance on both my dogs but one is one VPI because I started him on it years ago. The other I just put on Embrace so I voted Embrace. The last question you had to vote regardless of whether or not you had insurance so I put other (meaning n/a).

[Guest eaglflyt]

We have Embrace Pet Insurance. We are totally happy with it. Honest and quick service, customizable policies, FAST reimbursement, excellent value, covers alternative treatments, cancer is included in basic coverage, no fee schedule to follow, any vet is fine, etc. We had *multiple* claims our first year of coverage. All claims were covered just as stated and RAPID reimbursement (usually in less than 1 week). We're completely happy we have pet insurance and we can rest easily knowing that finances won't constrain any treatments that may be necessary for our girl.

[Guest UESBrindle]

We have Pet First and are very happy with it. The first year we easily racked up over $2500 in vet bills with William, so it has already paid for itself in reimbursing us. I highly recommend it!

[Guest zoolaine]

I had PetFirst and they always paid promptly but when Sunny got cancer I quickly went though the per incident amount in just a few visits. I also don't like that they consider anything prior to renewal pre-existing - even if they had covered it before. I switched all mine to PetPlan - luckily I haven't had to make a claim yet.

[Guest caliebsmom]

I just signed up both dogs and our cat for Trupanion. It was between Embrace and Trupanion based on their policies and the reviews I found on the internet. Both my boxer and my cat were too old for Embrace so I decided to go with Trupanion. We are still in the waiting period so I don't know yet how they will be about claims but I did read very good reviews. I really liked that fact that they reimburse based on the actual vet bills.

[Guest Liz]

I had pet insurance and dropped it when they refused to pay a claim for my senior. I found a lot of loop holes in the coverage. I have not looked at insurance again but so far my girls have been healthy, so I am winging it for now.

[seeh2o]

I just posted this in a thread of its own, but Trupanion is offering free 60 days worth of coverage if you are signed up (or sign up) with Dogster. Both are absolutely free, I just signed up for Trupanion through this program to give it a try - they didn't even ask for my credit card and the standard waiting periods for accident (5 days) and illness (30 days) are waived!

 

Here is a blog entry from Dogster, apparently claims submitted during the trial period actually do get paid:

"Trupanion’s Free Pet Insurance Trial: Claims Do Get Paid

Stacy Kowalchuk

Comments (0)

 

Many of you Dogsters and Catsters may have already known that we offer an exclusive free trial period of pet insurance to Dogster/Catster members*. This is a way for you to test the waters of pet insurance and see if you might like it for your pet before spending any money.

 

Though you may not expect anything to happen to your pet during that initial period, we’ve seen a few pets who put their free pet insurance to good use!

 

Bella is a Bullmastiff puppy that was enrolled in a free trial for our pet insurance when she was just under 4 months old. Unfortunately, she came down with a bad case of Parvovirus. Dogs with Parvo experience vomiting and diarrhea which causes dehydration and can quickly lead to more serious health effects. Bella received proper veterinary treatment and was brought back to good health, but it left her owner with a whopping $3,387.96 vet bill.

 

Fortunately, the owners of Bella were able to use their free pet insurance trial and Trupanion reimbursed $2,915.06 just two days after receiving the claim. If that isn’t reason enough to try out pet insurance for free, I don’t know what is!"

[RobinM]

1) Don't have

2) Don't have

3) No matter how we calculate, it doesn't make $$ sense to do it for us.

[Guest lanielovesgreys]

It doesn't make financial sense. If we saved 60$ a month and put it in an account, we'd have enough to pay all our vet bills (emergency and non-emergency).

 

That being said, we suck at saving and pay VPI $60 a month to insure our two. They've covered about 75% of our bills. Not too bad, and saves us from worrying about money when all we care about is making our pups feel better.

[RedFawnMom]

We have it. It has made life much less stressful over the past couple of weeks after we discovered a bone lesion in Lucy. My first thought was of course devastation that we discovered something seriously wrong with her, and my second thought was, "Thank god we have insurance". Knowing that 80% of whatever treatment we choose is covered (up to a max amount, I think $10k per illness) takes cost out of the decision-making equation. The fact that I knew insurance would pay for the majority of the X-rays also made me insist on getting them right away rather than waiting to see if she got better (which is what the vet recommended since the X-rays ran us $400), which turned out to be a very good thing.

 

It's a personal decision. We are good savers, and have enough saved to take care of major vet bills, but something about having insurance just makes things less stressful. We've had the policy for one year, and when I file the two last claims for this first policy year, we will have spent less on premiums than we've received in reimbursements....and next year, we'll have much larger claims. So in our case, it's well worth it.

 

I think the trick is to get it RIGHT away when you adopt, before there is any knowledge of any pre-existing conditions. If you wait until there's a problem, it's too late.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Had I had pet insurance all these years, I'd have lost thousands of dollars. Makes no sense for us to have it.

[Guest june]

I've never really looked into it. By the time I realized it was out there my girls were 12 and 6. Now I have a 6 year old, 8 year old and 8 1/2 year old. Mostly I've been pretty lucky. Also, living in central Illinois my vet is much less expensive than in other parts of the country.

june

[Walliered]

I have Trupanion on both of mine. Just got a check for $307.00 from them. They paid 90% of the bill with no problems. There is not a max. yearly amound on their policy.

[Guest kydie]

It take some time to pick which one you want and can afford,, but the 2 I do NOT recommend are VIP and ASPCA, reason: for those of us who live in rural places these two insurances will only pay what THEY feel is an approiate rate in your area, on the vet's bill, therefore those of us in rural America are discrimiated againist because our vets don't charge as much as city vet's.... I know this for a fact, as I got screwed from ASPCA,, dropped them like a hot potato, thank doG I only had them for 1 year before I placed as small claim