Pet insurance

[susandennis]

Pet insurance is priced perfectly. It's way too much money per month. It feels like you are pouring it down the drain and yet, if you put that amount into a savings account, at the end of the year, you would not have nearly enough to pay for even one of Biggie's medical emergencies. It would take 6=7 years to save enough that way to pay for one of his surgeries or his leap off the ledge.

BUT if he goes 6-7 years without an issue (highly probable), then I have cash.

The vet gave me a discount code for Trupanion but there are a biscillion different pet insurance companies with different coverages and different rates. I just killed an hour researching and I'm no closer to knowing the best thing to do.

The discount code has Julio covered for the next month. i think I'm officially kicking the can down the road.

Comments

[gwendraith]

I always feel ripped off with pet insurance but...I feel anxious without it. I pay up for the peace of mind. It's not too expensive and it increases only a little each year but went down last year. A years worth of payments wouldn't be anything like enough for all the work a cat would need after a serious accident or illness. The 15 years I've been paying for two cats might!

[vegetablearian]

It seems like most people have pet insurance because my vets always seem surprised I don't, but I wonder if a lot of people without insurance just don't take their pets to the vet, because I never get the impression that most people have insurance either.

Do you get the kind of insurance that does consultations and jabs and fleaing and everything? Sometimes I think about getting simpler insurance with a really high deductible for the huge horrible stuff but like you said it's rare. And adds up to sooo much over the years. And the older my cats get, the less trouble there is for them to get into and the less likely I am to think a lot of treatments/procedures would be worth it in terms of quality of life. I would be able to take out a loan if savings weren't enough, and it would hopefully stop me doing something I didn't really think was best. (But, it would only take a short string of bad luck for it to end up costing more than all the premiums...)

I don't know what I'd do with young cats like yours though! Biggie is a perfect example of when insurance can really come in handy, and ofc if they're not insured before the first mishap it just gets more and more expensive. At least you have another month to decide :)

[seattlejo]

So Trinity and Mouse both have Trupanion.
Trinity has had it since the day we got her. I pay for a low deductible and good coverage. (and at her age, it's about $130 for her alone)

We finally used it a few months ago, with her pancreatitis issue. Before they would pay they wanted to have a copy of her records from every vet she had visited (2 other vets for a total of 3 visits) They wanted to make sure that she'd never had the issue before (though if she had, she should have been covered?!?)

it was a whole rigmarole, and a pain in the ass. I did finally get paid back, not as much as I assumed, and based on that interaction I assume her pancreatitis is no longer covered if she has a flare up.

[susandennis]

Turpanion is the flyer I got at the vet. Interestingly, when I got to Google and search for pet insurance, IF it is mentioned at all, it is mentioned at the bottom of the list.

I think I'm pretty much going to pass. But I'm going to give it a month anyway. Good to hear my concerns are valid :)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, Had i saved each month instead, it would have been 3k in the bank. But instead they covered 1K and i still 2k behind (incrementing 130 each month)

[seattlejo]

Sorry just responded anonymously on accident. they've still got 2k in their favor vs if I had just dropped the premium in a bank account each month.

[susandennis]

I think I am literally going to create a Cat Savings Account and auto deposit into it and see how that turns out.

[desdemonaspace]

What?! Don't kick the can.

I don't have proper pet insurance, only a "wellness plan" that covers regular visits. If either of them get anything big, I have to dip into my investments.

[susandennis]

Yeah, I think, once the 30 days is up, I'm going to bail in favor of my own savings.

[zippybeta]

I have PetsBest insurance, my 3yr dog Jeep had a MRI and IVDD surgery in April they paid 90% and I had a 200 deductible the bill was close to $12,000. I pay about 40.00 a month, so glad I had the insurance.

[susandennis]

I do think if I had a dog, I'd feel differently. Also, fyi, PetsBest came up as BEST in all my serches!

[roasted_beets]

My dog's breeder has a Facebook group so we can arrange meet ups, discuss training, post pictures. One member's pup was hit (run over!) by a truck that never stopped. We put up a GoFundMe and within 24 hours had raised over $8K. Another lady's dog ate a mushroom that should have killed her. We learned her vet would let us make donations over the phone and had that taken care of within a couple days. I was happy to contribute to both those causes and should some catastrophe befall my Freya, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it with the help of my friends.