Is pet insurance worth it?

[cytoglycerine]

I was talking with a girlfriend of mine the other day, and she told me about how she is considering purchasing pet insurance for her dog. She found a website that offers a policy for $35/month, and she was very excited about it. I know she means well, but she's not really the most mathematically-savvy girl on the planet and has the tendency to focus on just the monthly payment. I asked her to elaborate on what the insurance covers, and here are the details she remembers:


1. Cost is $35/month (she could not remember if that included tax or not)
2. There is a $100 deductible for each claim
3. It covers a wide range of things from illnesses to accidents, and also partially covers neutering/spaying
4. There is a maximum coverage amount per claim, but she couldn't remember what it was.


I told her that IMO, it wasn't really a great deal for her to take the insurance, and that she should just instead save the $35 a month in a "Dog Insurance" savings account. With the annual cost of the premiums ($420) and the deductible ($100), she'd have to make an average claim every year for at least $520 just to break even. It's possible, but it just seems unlikely to me that she would incur that much in vet bills. Obviously, something catastrophic could happen, and the insurance could end up saving her a ton of money (and even the dog's life), but with that maximum coverage amount, whatever it is, her out-of-pocket costs could still be huge.


What do you guys think? Do any of you have pet insurance? Do you think it's worth it? Why or why not? I personally don't insure my cats - When I first adopted them, I looked into it, but found that the premiums were very high for what I received in turn for coverage, and just decided to self insure instead.

[cael]

I've looked into it for our cat, who we got in August. DF has some small discount available through work with the ASPCA pet insurance, and there are four different tiers of coverage you can get. I can't remember exactly what I decided, but I think I figured that either the lowest or second lowest might be worth it. The lowest was about $100/year (I think) and would cover injuries, the second was maybe close to $200-something for the year and was injuries and emergencies, or something like that. But yeah, the deductibles were pretty high and as long as she stays healthy, hopefully all we'll be paying for care will be $75-$100ish for her yearly checkup. I'm still not sure I want to do it, as she's an indoor kitty so hopefully the risk of being injured will be pretty low, and she's been healthy her whole life so far. I don't know.

[CarolinaKat]

Pet insurance, from what I've been able to find, usually only covers a catestrophic illness/injury and not regular well-checks. It also usually has a low-ish maximum lifetime coverage. I looked into it for my cats, and discovered I'd be paying a significant OOP for something I'd likely not use for many, many years, if ever. A lot of policies don't cover what is considered 'common breed conditions' so if you have a German Shephard they won't cover hip dysplasia, if you have a Mastiff they won't cover bloat, etc.

I self insure my pets, and make sure they get regular checks and are current on vaccinations/meds FWIW. Now if they insurance covered the cost of regular checks/vaccines I would reconsider.

[whoisjohngalt]

The thing that would stop me is "per claim" thing. My DH's dog was sick for about 2.5 yrs before they put him down. We spend THOUSANDS on him, but it was different doctors, different tests, all trying to figure out what was wrong with him. So, yeah, if it was all considered one claim it would be well worth it, but if every visit, every test would be considered "different clam", than it would be a big total waste

Lena

[schildi]

I think it's probably not worth it from a financial perspective. It sounds like a bad deal with a deductible and a max cap, even though we do not know all the details yet.
IMO, such insurance would need to cover real catastrophic events, but with a max cap, it sounds like it would fail doing that. How much is that cap?

[Deleted]

I think I'd need more details about her pet and how much care it receives.

DH and I started paying for pet insurance for our 11 year old dog a few years ago and it's saved us money. It costs around $500 a year. It covers two full exams a year (with blood/urine tests), vaccinations, tooth cleaning (with anesthesia) and 20% off hospital stays and any other services. The regular care alone is cheaper than going without the insurance.

[cytoglycerine]

Feb 22, 2011 10:22:17 GMT -5 schildi said:

I think it's probably not worth it from a financial perspective. It sounds like a bad deal with a deductible and a max cap, even though we do not know all the details yet.
IMO, such insurance would need to cover real catastrophic events, but with a max cap, it sounds like it would fail doing that. How much is that cap?

I have no idea what the cap is - my friend didn't know, and I didn't ask what company she was looking at, or I could look up the policy details myself. But I did look up some other plans, and depending on the monthly premiums, they have caps ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Based on the premium she told me, her plan would have had a cap around $2,000....Seems pretty stingy to me.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"With the annual cost of the premiums ($420) and the deductible ($100), she'd have to make an average claim every year for at least $520 just to break even. It's possible, but it just seems unlikely to me that she would incur that much in vet bills. ":::...

Hindsight is 20/20. From Sept. to Dec. we DID have $500 in vet bills every month. If the policy covered everything, our OOP would have been ~ [$100x6] + [$35x4] = $740 instead of over $2k. (assuming the $100 deductible is paid at every visit).

For us, it was getting cat #3 (or as I call it, the gateway cat) which changed the equation. With 2 cats, we hardly EVER had any problems except the occasional checkup and illness. But now, we are a regular revenue stream for the animal hospital, and so on it will continue to be.

One of our cats is old and probably would cost a lot to insure. The other two might be worthwhile though.

[thatgirl]

My dog was hit by a car when she was a puppy and weighed less than 3 pounds. The emergency vet bill and cost of surgery to fix her legs was at least $3,000! I don't think that included a subsequent surgery a year later to remove one of the screws in her leg. In my case, pet insurance would have been a very good deal.

Also, if the insurance covers cancer and/or genetic defects, it could be a good deal. Some breeds of dogs are prone to back problems, seizures, trachea problems, etc.

[bobosensei]

I just took my 2 dogs to the vet today. A complete set of shots plus a years worth of heartworm pills for each dog was only 270.00. I've had good luck with these dogs. My big dog was adopted from a shelter at 8 weeks old and had a case of kennel cough which took a few visits to cure. All in all it wasn't expensive. My smaller dog was maybe 2 when we found her and she had some sort of ear infection from living outside for who knows how long. And then she got a UTI after her spay. I've had these dogs for 5 years and that is it. In the beginning the puppy shots were expensive for my one dog, but on average they only cost me about 300 a year.

[kdamron]

My puppy border collie got Parvo last year. With a week's stay at the puppy hospital and all of the medicines it was around 4K to cure her. She goes back to the vet today because she's sickly, so yeah, the insurance can be worth it if something terrible happens and you have a big claim. I was lucky enough to have the money to take care of puppy-child, and I gladly did. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't have afforded it.

[Tiny]

You also need to look out into the future when deciding to buy Insurance or to Self Insure.
If your friend takes the insurance ($420) and pays monthly for 2 or 3 years without using the Insurance - she's spent $840 to $1260. Once it gets to 5 years she's at $2100 "into the plan". That's probably not so bad if the she uses the insurance... but if she goes long term without using it could become more expensive than not having it.
I starting self insuring my cats years ago when I got the first set (and then a third Spare Cat). I had years and years when the kitties were healthy and didn't require much so the Cat Insurance Fund got quite large - which was good because they all developed health issues towards the end of their lives and I had $$ to use without too much financial worries. Also had enough to get a little urn with their ashes back when the end finally came for them. The original cats have gone on to Cat Heaven and the new Cats have "inherited" the remaining Cat Insurance Fund - and I'm in the process of slowly building it back up again to 1500 per cat - $40 a month.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

We don't have pet insurance for our 9, inside-only, rescued kitty cats. We looked into it, but the premiums would've cost us more than $500 per month. We did the math and decided it was just easier to "self-insure" and keep adequate funds in savings to pay for necessary vet care. For things like vaccines, we actually pay a local vet to come to our house and give vaccinations for a set fee ~ definitely the most cost-effective approach for everyone concerned when dealing with a housefull of rescued felines.

That being said, vet insurance can be a good deal if your pet is of a breed with known common health plans, especially if the insurance has a reasonable copay or deductible and decent limits.... even a bonus if it covers dental cleanings. Some vets also offer "wellness plans" that may be worth considering.

As to spays, neuters and vaccines, most areas have low cost clinics and places that can be less expensive than your neighborhood vet. Sometimes it's worthwhile to shop around and compare prices.