Pet Insurance

[Superflyer]

We recently got a new dog. Before that we had a cat that passed from cancer. That got pricy but other than that her health care was not very much.
My wife says we need the insurance in case this happens again.
Does anyone have insurance for their pet and if so is it worth it? Who would you recommend to go with?

[SportsJunky]

Good question. I'd like some advice on this as well. We are picking up our new puppy in a month.

[bigtmac19]

I did a lot of research on it after one of my cats died suddenly. It basically seemed a rip off, barely anything was covered, the only way it would be helpful is in an emergency situation, but for any basic health care I found it to be useless. Especially things like teeth cleaning, which for cats is ungodly expensive. You are better off starting a savings account for the dog's health care.

[bagofpucks]

Yah, I had the same experience and when I ran all the numbers it was better to keep the $40-$60 per month in a savings account. Our dog did have a major surgery and the one thing that would have been nice is at least we wouldn’t have had to make a decision on if we were going to do the surgery (we decided to get it done ASAP anyways). One factor is our dog was more expensive to insure because of his breed.

[Firebot]

Pet insurance is absolutely not worth it. You are paying 50-100$ a month, for what purpose really? Your basic pet insurance you have to pay a deductible regardless, and you may find the illness is not covered due to the pet's susceptibility to it or that there's a maximum coverage cap. Just put aside an amount a year toward pet health, and use it if something occurs.

[Fuzz]

Previous thread on it here:
https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=115556


The amusing bit is you were the last one to post in it!

[nfotiu]

We bought it when we brought our first puppy home a few years ago. At about 2 years old, he was diagnosed with a congenital liver disease. We went through all sorts of surgeries and scans and had bills around $6k. After fighting with the insurance company about whether it was a pre-existing condition they eventually approved our our claim, but only paid about $1500 due to deductibles, limits and fee schedules and left us paying $4500. I think I figured at the time that I basically broke even on the premiums.

In our case, it was definitely not worth the hassle and didn't help us avoid a big bill.

[CaptainCrunch]

My Sister has it for her multiple dogs over the years and swears by it. They had a dog that went through all kinds of cancer and surgeries that would have cost them thousands and were covered.


They have it so decisions about their dogs life won't be driven by finances.

[Weitz]

It’s paid off already for 3 years for my 1.5 year old dog.

Basically after your dog has been a member of the family for 7 years do you want to make the decision of spending $10,000 to save him or letting him die vs paying your deductible?

[Fuzz]

The problem is I've read loads of stories like nfotiu's. Maybe if you have a breed subject to many issues, but then they jack up the rates. I'd rather self insure. I've had a few expensive vet trips, but still way under what I would have paid in insurance over the years, once I ran the math.

[rain_e]

Put $100/month in a separate bank account and only use this if there is a major issue (don't use this for regular checkups etc).

You will most likely come out ahead doing this. It might cost you $30/month now for insurance but it just goes up every year.

[bigtmac19]

Just read the fine print - there are a ton of caveats on when they will not pay claims. You have to have a clean bill of health from the vet upon signing up, they don't cover any "pre-existing" conditions so there can be issues with proving your pet did not have one. Read the reviews online - nightmares for a lot of people getting them to pay a claim.

[GGG]

The insurance companies make money so overall insurance is a bad deal for everyone. The number of pets you own in your life likely close to statistically significant enough to balance the risk over your lifetime.

Look at the maximum that insurance will cover for the various things. Have that amount saved over time either as a dedicated pet fund or as part of a general emergency fund. This way the decision to put down a pet isn’t driven by you not being able to afford it.

Your biggest financial risk to your household is still likely job loss Which is at best 50% insured. Adding a pet or having pet insurance for that bet doesn’t affect the overall financial risk to yourself. So the only real risk pet insurance protects you from is access to the money at the instant you need it and not having the money vs pet decision thrust on your face because you already chose pet over money at a non-emotional time.

[wretched34]

We use Trupanion for our Dog insurance.
We had an Olde English Bulldogge, who over his 6 years and 10 months had chronic ear infections, both rear CCL's done, and ultimately died following a splenectomy, that ran us near $25,000 in vet bills. In total, we paid the vets approximately $5,000, and (82 months @ $65.00/month) $5,330 in Insurance premiums. Insurance Saved us close to $14,000 in his lifetime, and gave us the ability to choose to attempt to extend his life, rather than giving up on him at a young age.

On the other hand, we have a mutt, who outside of regular appointments and vaccinations has had no medical issues, and has cost us $2,700 in premiums so far.

Pet insurance is like every other insurance, it may pay out, or it may not.

We found Trupanion to be the most upfront and easiest to work with. They direct pay the vets, and we never had issues with approvals. In fact the final approval for emergency surgery took less than 30 minutes, and it was for over $10,000.
Our policy covered 90% of costs, not including GST once the deductible (ours was $500) was met.

If you're willing to put away $50/month on your own for emergency funds, I feel you're better off just getting insurance.
Sure, if nothing goes wrong over your dogs 14 year life you have a nice chunk of change set aside, but in some cases (like our bulldogge) $50/month for 82 months wouldn't have even scratched the surface on his medical costs, in fact, it wouldn't have even paid for his first knee surgery, let alone the second, and our life saving attempt. He'd have been crippled by age 4, and we would have had to have chosen to let him die, rather than try to prevent it from happening.

I see pet insurance as a cost of owning a pet, much like home insurance or vehicle insurance, it's just a cost you should include.

[81MC]

I would suggest getting a vet check up that with something to the effect of no current issues.

I had Trupanion for my guy, and because one vet determined it was either a birth defect or an injury as a puppy, nothing qualified.

[1qqaaz]

Vets in the middle of nowhere tend to be a lot cheaper. Even the vets in NE Calgary are noticeably cheaper than in the NW. The ones in Okotoks, High River, etc. are decent options.

[Jason14h]

Ask yourself this question “If I had to write a $20k check tomorrow to save my dogs life could I without flinching” if the answer is yes you don’t need insurance . If no , you should probably get it .

In most cases it will never pay for itself . But in rare cases it will save your pets life.

Nothing insightful here I know , as that is how insurance works

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

We recently got a new dog. Before that we had a cat that passed from cancer. That got pricy but other than that her health care was not very much.
My wife says we need the insurance in case this happens again.
Does anyone have insurance for their pet and if so is it worth it? Who would you recommend to go with?

We have trupanion for our dog - we pay something like $70 or $90 a month, and the deductible is $750.

It saved us $500 when she needed to have a lump removed last year. Moreover, it’s good to know that if she does get sick or injured, that it’s only going to cost us $750 out of pocket - puppy chemo is no cheap trick, from what I hear.

It’s not the cheapest, and it doesn’t pay for smaller stuff like vet visits, but it’s a small price to pay for never having to worry about letting your dog die for financial reasons.

[Erick Estrada]

We have had our current dog for 5 years and he's a breed that doesn't have a lot of genetic health ailments so we don't feel insurance is necessary. Over the five years he's had a couple of reactions to food where he's licked himself into open sores that got infected and both times probably cost us around $300 each. That works out to $120 per year so the math of paying $50+ a month just doesn't work for us but it all comes down to one's tolerance for risk and how attached you are to your pet.

[username]

My wife recently opened a vet clinic and she would tell you that it really depends on the breed of dog. I'd suggest that you research common health conditions for your breed, and then decide if it justifies having insurance.