Pet Insurance

[akjam]

Getting close to retirement and spending our time either on the road in the lower 48 or at our place in Alaska. I am considering getting pet insurance for our 2 YO lab it order to mitigate the cost of an accident or illness.

A trip to the pet emergency clinic can easily run into the 1000's now a days. I am hoping to hear experiences and recommendations from folks who use pet insurance. Is it worth it, in your opinion? Any recommendations on companies? It looks like a policy for our pup would run +/- $30 per month without a preventative care option which seems fairly reasonable to me.

Looking forward to hearing other folks thoughts.
Jim

[rmkrum]

Watch out for premium changes upward every time the dog gets a year older. Last time I tried it that was the game...dropped the policy like a hot rock when it went from $25 to $90 in a year.

Like any other insurance read the fine print very carefully.


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[Keyair]

We have and have had Pets Best for years. They have good plans but are not cheap. We never want to be put in a situation where we would be forced to make a financial decision on a dog we love so much. When Moose came down with Bloat, the vet bill was still $4,300 and she died. So with the cremation, we were at $4,500. We were on 80/20 plan with a $250 deductible. We ended up getting over $3000 back from Pets Best. The refund came quickly, and they even covered the cremation costs. A condolence card arrived soon after from them, which was a classy touch.
We do Health Insurance, so know more than most. Watch out for some insurances that do not have "Usual and Customary" payment schedules. In other words, they decide what the reimbursements are based on a table, not what your Vet actually charged. In California, that wouldn't fly.

[FCStreamer]

We just signed up our 6mo Labradoodle for Nationwide (petinsurance.com) with Wellness. $70 a month, $250 deductible a year, reimburses 90% of just about everything. We just had him neutered and microchipped, vaccines, tests, exams. The have other plans without wellness coverage at around $30/40. Submitting a claim can be done via email with a scan of the vet bill. I use Scanner Pro on my iPhone. Works for us.

[centennialman]

I have Healthy Paws for my little buddy. I shopped extensively after losing my last dog to a horrible disease and spending thousands of dollars trying to save him. In addition to insurance, blood titering every year to test the effectiveness of prior vaccines, reducing and not vaccinating every year, species appropriate fresh food and exercise, teeth brushing and regular grooming....these things are insurance as well