Pet Insurance Recomendations

[ken0042]

We recently welcomed a new puppy into our home. As many of you know, we had to say goodbye to our 14 year old last winter. I am looking at starting pet insurance; in part because being a puppy, there will be no pre-existing conditions. With our previous dog, they kept finding reasons to say something was pre-existing; even if it was a bit of a stretch.

I am looking between Trupanion and Furkin. There are some benefits to each, but the price difference of the policies is significant. Here's the breakdowns:

Trupanion- $135 per month.
90% coverage, $1000 deductible. Deductible is lifetime for any given issue.
However they do not cover GST, nor the exam fee for an incident.
No limit on coverage.

Furkin- $85 per month
80% coverage, $300 deductible per year. GST and exam fees are included.

It is looking like Furkin offers similar coverage for less money. They are re-imbursement instead of direct pay to the vet; which doesn't matter to me as much. The thing is, neither vet I spoke to has heard of them. Does anybody here have first hand experience?

I also know there are cheaper plans out there, but most have lower limits like $5000. Main point of insurance is to make sure we never have to decide between re-mortgaging the house and helping the dog. Having some expenses covered in that makes it a little easier to justify the monthly cost.

[Weitz]

I recently just cancelled my trupanion plan because they seemed to increase 15-25% per year no matter what. We did have a claim when our guy was about 6 months old and they were good to deal with and no issues. I just couldnt justify the increase this year.

Decided to go the self insure route.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I recently just cancelled my trupanion plan because they seemed to increase 15-25% per year no matter what. We did have a claim when our guy was about 6 months old and they were good to deal with and no issues. I just couldnt justify the increase this year.

Decided to go the self insure route.

Same. The two issues our dog had weren’t covered either.

[Drak]

Been using Trupanion for seven years but the price goes up every year. What’s nice is our dog isn’t covered under Periodontal disease but they covered a lot of it anyway when our pup went in for dental surgery. A near 3k bill ended up being 1200 for us.

But you might be better off just setting aside your own money each month instead.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Drak

But you might be better off just setting aside your own money each month instead.

This. If you are in a position to handle something that comes up right away, before you have a chance to build up the account and you can trust yourselves not to spend it on something else, you will usually come out ahead. And if you don't need it, you still have it.

I've never used pet insurance myself. I've heard of Trupanion; haven't heard of Furkin.

[Locke]

My sister (Vet Tech) says that Trupanion is easy to deal with, but obviously the premiums are pretty steep...like $100+/mo is 'Human Insurance' territory.

I've also never heard of Furkin.

We also chose to just...suck it up and pay for it ourselves rather than insure and it has yet to bite us in the ass.

[bluejays]

My dog is 12. If I can echo something based on my personal experience. I dealt with several companies when my guy was a puppy to about three. I found the increases year over year were crazy. I think by year three if memory recalls it may have been about $100 a month. Completely nuts. I’d just recommend being disciplined, putting money aside month to month until they get older or until such time you need it. When they’re puppies it was really cheap. But at a certain point it gets expensive and not worth it. I recall I had insurance with spca and caa or something. It’s been awhile.

[PaperBagger'14]

Im as big of a dog lover as there is, and I opted to not get pet insurance and self insure. There’s a few expenses every dog will go through as they get older (dental work, medication) that I’m fine saving for. But when it comes to other things like if they get hit by a car and will need specialty surgery and a lifetime of meds and pain? Or a terminal disease like cancer? Yeah I personally wouldn’t put a dog through massive surgeries, pain or the likes of chemotherapy. It’s those major incidents where the bills really rack up and sometimes the best interest for the animal is to not have to go through it.

It’s really a case by case basis though, we could have had surgery done on our last dog (RIP Hades) to remove a tumor but we suspected there was another one in his brain. My wife is also a vet tech and we opt out of pet insurance.

[Locke]

It should also be mentioned that it depends on the dog. Breed, temperament, intelligence, etc.

For instance our dog is an idiot. He runs into crap all the time but he's small so its all mostly harmless.

Our daughter's dog, big Golden Retriever, also dumb as hell, attempted to eat a boulder and in the attempt lost a couple of teeth.

You think Human Dentistry is an over-priced scam? Wait until you have to pay for Canine Dentistry!

But I echo Paperbagger's sentiment, as much as we become attached to them, pets come and go and sometimes the hard call has to be made.

[ken0042]

Yeah- I have also been considering the self-insure route. Also being with Trupanion before I know about the price increases.

The one thing that gave me some peace of mind- when we decided to put my dog to sleep we had also been given the option of an extensive treatment instead. It would have been covered by insurance so the cost never played into the discussion. I was able to do what was best for his quality of life- and I’ve never doubted if my decision was financial.

[WideReceiver]

My recommendation: self insure pet insurance.

[troutman]

This world would amaze my rancher dad. He loved his animals, but if they were sick he “took care” of them himself.

[Cheese]

I use Pets+Us. They have 3 tiers you can select from and it has served me well. The only downside is it doesnt cover dental.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Drak

Been using Trupanion for seven years but the price goes up every year. What’s nice is our dog isn’t covered under Periodontal disease but they covered a lot of it anyway when our pup went in for dental surgery. A near 3k bill ended up being 1200 for us.

But you might be better off just setting aside your own money each month instead.

This is the way… if you haven’t already got money aside when you first get a dog then insurance makes a ton of sense. But if you plan some budget for health issues then you really don’t need insurance in my opinion.

[TorqueDog]

My cat Oskär was insured with Trupanion... but to sound like a broken record, the premiums kept going up every year without fail. Finally I phoned and asked exactly why my premiums kept going up.

CSR: "Well, it's just more expensive to insure a pet."
Me: "No, I mean why are my cat's premiums going up the way they are? You're asking for $120 a month when the policy has not paid out more than that in its lifetime. Seriously, go look at the policy's claims history; you've covered $102 over the last nine years, now you're asking for more than that a month."
CSR: "That's still quite cheap. If you signed up today for a new policy, it would be nearly four times that."
Me: "Yeah, I'd like to cancel my policy."

I picked PetSecure. They're ~$80 a month, and cover dental which Trupanion doesn't.

But I am starting to agree with those suggesting self-insuring. Take the money you'd be paying for a policy and invest it into a growth mutual fund or an ETF like ZGRO-T.TO or VEQT.TO or something and turn on DRIP. When the time comes that you need the money, cash out the fund.

[Sr. Mints]

I sure wish I had insurance for my current guy back in 2021, but I balked at the premiums.

At 16 weeks old the ding dong broke his elbow on a step. You know it's going to cost a lot when the vet brings in an orthopedic vet specialist who flies his own helicopter. That first operation alone was around $6800.

[MJK]

Costco - Pet Plus

https://www.costco.ca/pets-plus-us.html

[you&me]

We've had a series of bulldogs since I met my wife... Initially insured with Trupanion, the cost was a seemingly reasonable ~$40 per month, but like everyone else, the premiums just kept climbing and we eventually cancelled.

When we got a second puppy, the vet had some promotion for "one month free", or something like that. We balked at the initial quote - now over $200 for the two dogs - but figured why not?

Importantly, our vet shared that yes, pet insurance in the Calgary area is ludicrously expensive and it comes down to one, single factor - VCA. Apparently, you can basically live in any other HCO area in N. America - Vancouver, Toronto, heck Beverly Hills or Manhattan, etc - and your rates will be lower. Trupanion (obviously) accounts for your locale when figuring out your premium and due to the prevalence of the VCA clinics, their pricing and the resultant inflation of fees at other clinics that causes, the Calgary area is supposedly the most expensive place in N. America for vet fees and ergo, most expensive insurance.

As everyone knows, bulldogs are incredibly smart dogs, so during that one month of free insurance, the new puppy decided to take a leap off the sofa and, naturally, landed like a sack of potatoes and gets up limping.

Off to the vet we go... Now, of course the vet asks for our insurance as soon as we enter the parking lot and we wait... What started with "Probably a serious fracture, let's do some X-rays" turned into "We can't really tell conclusively, but our suggestion is to perform surgery to avoid any serious, life-long disabilities for your poor puppy"... which then turned into an estimate for over $15,000, including the surgery, pre and post opp stays (and almost $2k per day), etc etc.

Now I can imagine some poor, love-struck-with-their-new-puppy couple doing anything they can to help, especially if they have pet insurance... But in our case, my wife had just broken a very similar bone in her foot the year before... After a stint in a walking cast, the final visit with the Dr. was summed up something like "we basically don't care about bones in feet unless you're an elite athlete... there's really nothing more we can reasonably do".

With that fresh in our mind - and as anyone with a puppy knows, you can basically see their paws grow before your eyes - we declined the surgery and decided to take our chances with our new pup's (inconclusive, yet apparently still dire) "broken foot bone"...

But of course, as we leave, we need to settle up and thank goodness we had that promotional insurance coverage (which, to their credit, was legit)... Except it doesn't cover the visit fee... or the GST... and there's a deductible... and it only covers ~80% (from memory), etc, etc... Once the dust settled, we still ended up paying the majority of the ~$1800.

So now we just self-insure and do what we can to be selective with our veterinary choices, avoiding the VCA clinics as much as possible.

[PaperBagger'14]

Dogs and limb injuries are an interesting scenario. I think a lot of people dismiss how high of a quality of life a dog can have after having a limb amputated. Most small-medium breed dogs can have a great life with 3/4 legs, but a (VCA) vet will always push for the more expensive specialty surgery.

Depending on the size of the dog, its age and front vs back legs amputation can actually be the better option for lots of cases. It’s a learning curve for the dog but with amputation it will very unlikely need another surgery (speciality surgeries can and do fail, our old foster dogs knee being a prime example) and they can generally still do all the things a dog loves to do. I do get why people put themselves in the animals position, but would you rather your dog spend a couple months of recovery after amputating a leg or potentially multiple surgeries spanning years of their life when they may only live to be 10-15?

[rain_e]

Open a separate bank account and auto transfer $100 in to it every month. You'll be a happy man in 10 years.