pet insurance?

[Momo]

We have 3 cats and a dog that I want to get coverage for by the end of May.
Give me some pet insurance recommendations.
I am lazy and don't feel like doing a ton of research soooooo... hopefully you all can help me out!??!! pretty please

BTW heading to Vet soon, due to what appears to be a bleeding butt on our sweet Samantha(kitty).

[diggitydot]

DH has been researching them since our idiot dog needed surgery to remove a linear foreign body. I'll ask him what he found. I know it's about $25-$30/month for our dog.

[Momo]

Hey Michele, chime in here! Surely you have heard somethong over the years from some of your patient's guardians!!??

[Michele]

I got nothing! I have two clients with insurance and it's a pain in my ... to fill out the forms with the correct wording so it gets covered. I'm learning more about them, but it's still VERY policy specific regarding what is covered and what isn't.

When you compare them, ask what is covered and what isn't...ask what pre existing condition means (per year or per the life of the pet)...what the payout limit is per diagnosis and per pet per year? Or lifetime? And ask about alternative therapies like acupuncture or cold laser. Herbs and behavior? If there is a payout cap of $5K or whatever check the local prices of clinics...a foreign body surgery with complication could easily hit that at a specialty center. So could chemo or other cancer diagnostics and treatments. Rattlesnake bite could hit that for your big dog (antivenin is $$$$$).

[bokelley]

We had VPI and it was horrible. Most things were denied for various reasons. We dropped it. It may have been worse that human insurance, and my hatred for them runs deep.

[Vanquisher]

I know little to nothing about pet insurance, but my bet is that it would absolutely NOT be worth it.

[Pollyanna]

I know little to nothing about pet insurance, but my bet is that it would absolutely NOT be worth it.

That's my thinking as well. It's probably more cost effective to just put away money each month for petcare.

[spotty_dog]

Back when pet insurance was new, there were a number of articles from folks who ran the numbers and determined that whether your pet was generally healthy or sick, it was usually better just to save the equivalent of the premiums in an ordinary savings account. There were too many exclusions, too much hassle. There might be better options out there now, but I guess I feel like there's such a thing as too much insurance. If you can self-insure, do. In our house, we don't intend to pay much more than $1000 in medical bills per pet, and that is not an amount that would devastate our finances at this stage in our life. It would suck, but it's doable. So dog insurance is not a good buy. Similarly we can afford to pay for (human) dental care, so we have no dental insurance. We can afford health care unless it's really really serious, so we have a high-deductible health plan. We did get the extended warranty on the TV, but in hindsight it was probably a dumb idea.