A New Breed Of Pet Insurance?
In July I posted an article, Leashing In Those Huge Vet Bills, which offered some money saving tips. One of the tips was about pet insurance, it was the one that got the most reaction from our readers. Some thought it was worthwhile, while others felt it was too expensive, didn’t give enough reimbursement, and didn’t cover enough items (like hereditary conditions).
Recently Lisa and I started thinking about getting pet insurance. We never really thought about until adopting Logan, our Berner. The reason being, we know that Bernese Mountain dogs are very prone to hip dysplasia and cancer. I started doing some digging around to see what I could come up with.
I came across a great independent site where you can review, side by side, many different companies and compare what they offer.
There is a relatively new plan, PetPlan, that originated in the UK and has recently become available in the US. According to one of their PR agent’s, PetPlan is different because it includes coverage of hereditary conditions.
Perhaps it is time to take a new look at the value of pet health insurance. For the 62% of Americans with pets, there are new products on the market with high standards and value that can sharply reduce the impact of continually rising veterinarian charges that can force strapped pet owners to euthanize their beloved pets or go into debt to pay the bills.
Most pet owners think they don’t think they need it - until illness or accidents happen to their cat or dog. Consumer advisors have said that the cost of the policy- generally about $300 a year - is not worth it, mainly because traditionally, most plans reject too many claims, reimburse only a small portion of the ones they accept, and don’t cover the hereditary conditions of pure bred pets that rack up the highest medical bills.
Americans spend $42 billion a year on their pets yet only 1% of pet owners have pet insurance. Overseas, in the UK and Australia, where there are quality insurance plans, about 20% of pet owners have policies.
Petplan has been a popular pet insurance in the UK, Canada and Australia for over 30 years. Now that it is available in the United States, it has raised the bar for coverage and customer service so high that some other plans are taking note and upping their service and coverage.
I took a look at PetPlan on the Pet Insurance Review site to see what other people have written about this company. On the site both PetPlan US and PetPlan Canada were reviewed. Surprisingly, with very different result.
Those who have used PetPlan Canada were not not happy and overall it got a 4.47 out of 10 rating. However, those who have used PetPlan US gave it a 9.7 out of 10. An exceptionally high satisfactory rating.
I contacted the company to find out the reason for this discrepancy. The good news is that they are entirely separate companies, not related in any way.
As a matter of fact, as of September 1st Petplan UK terminated the relationship with Petplan Canada and there is effectively no Petplan Canada as of this time.
The company has been renamed and now operates as Petsecure. The reason they receive such terrible reviews is that their policies are completely different from those offered both in the UK and in the US.
Most notable they experience rate, which means that a pet owner is punished every time they submit a claim and see their premiums raised significantly.
While we haven’t decided on anything yet, we’ll definitely keep PetPlan in mind when making a decision in the near future.
If you want to avoid hip dysplasia and cancer - give Knox gelatin in the dog’s food every day. Use Flint River Ranch and only give minimum vaccinations. Dont give repeat vaccinations. Do an internet search on over vaccinating and you’ll find tons of info. Don’t feed your dog commercial pet food. Most cancers are caused by things we put in our bodies, like food preservatives, additives and toxins… like vaccines. Do these things for the life span of your pet, and you may not ever see any hip dysplasia or cancer at all.
Honestly I think the best advice is to put the money you would pay every month for pet insurance into a special savings account and let it accrue interest, then use this for vet bills. It seems to me that if you do this, unless there is some horribly horribly expensive procedure you will come out even with what you would have paid into and gotten out of the insurance company.
Animals are very important. But unless you have a very rare and valuable breed of dog, animal health insuranse isn’t the wisest use of money.
I had pet insurance for both of my Danes from when I got them as puppies. I rarely submitted claims for the routine stuff that they “cover”. When Gabriella got sick and we finally found out what she had I submitted the claims. My claims were turned down because they said it was hereditary, she had been diagnosed with Spondylosis & Wobblers. I was shocked to say the least. My Vet took the policy and went through it with a fine toothed comb. She found that the policy didn’t state that at all, and she noted that Gabriella had actually been OFA Certified that they were wrong in their claim of hereditary. In addition neither illness was noted that it would not be covered. We went round and round with them and in the end I cancelled my policy and have told everyone I know with dogs & cats to NEVER use this coming. I will not name them here on this site, but you can pawmail me and I will tell you. Your best bet is to have a seperate savings account in which you put what the preminum would be in it. I had figured that if I have done that with both of my babies, Gabby’s $3000 bill would have been no big deal. Diesel ended up getting bone cancer a year later and the money I had save from cancelling my pet insurance took the sting out of that.