Pet Insurance?

[heyheyhaven]

Hello everyone,
I have a wonderful 10 month old Sphynx baby named Dobby. He's the love of my life, but we have had some health stuggles. Nothing serious, thankfully. But we have been battling a sinus issue since I brought him home. I did the math on how much his vet visits have been and was shocked.
So I was wanting to look into pet insurence, since he obviously needs it. I talked to my vet and they accept all types of pet insurence. They gave me a pamphlet on VPI Pet Insurence and ASPCA Pet Health Insurence.

I was wondering how many of you guys do have pet health insurence? Which do you recommend? Any you deffinetly don't? I don't know if it makes a difference, but I live in Illinois.

I would greatly appreciate your openions and reveiws.
Thanks everyone.

 

[zoinks]

Remember that If you did get the pet insurance now the sinus issue would probably be classed as a pre-existing condition and they would be unlikely to cover related expenses. Definitely worth taking into consideration.

However you may want to get it to be safe, we have Healthy Paws for our boys and it has been a godsend since Alfie got diagnosed with HCM. They cover his xrays and follow up scans and we have saved a lot of money.

I have also heard good things about VPI.

 

[Brutus]

Hi, we live in the UK, we have insurance with pet plan. Unless you are extremely rich, or your vet is extremely cheap, then I would get insurance without a doubt. Even better if it is a company that works with your vet. we have the covered for life type insurance.
A few years ago Spartacus needed a life saving operation that ended up costing nearly £4000... Any monies we paid out were immediately repaid within a few days of claiming it. His monthly direct debit for the insurance was £17. I was surprised that it didn't increase the premium.
Sparky made a full recovery.

 

[Yoda mom]

Please call each company you are considering and check their websites for fine print-

I looked into several US companies recently- some require neutering, annual shots (often now vets are on a 3 yr plan for shots) they don't cover dentals etc and some then require 2 years history for each pet - then they review the chart notes and try to find any possibility for pre existing- google the reviews and comments for each company- they sell hard and will offer multi pet discounts-

I have read good and bad and some not covering the HCM scans etc- many also still have a 20% copay for emergency clinic visits that they will determine if it was necessary- I felt like I was buying a car!
My one kitty has nothing in his chart but an upset tummy with no known cause- I am sure that would make everything afterwards pre-existing so I didn't bother with the insurance - check into lifetime and annual Max amount too.

**I think it would be great for a brand new kitten to get the insurance before you even go for a vet check!

I highly recommend getting a copy of your kitties vet chart and read it - then consider anything that was written that could be twisted as pre exisitng***

Some also have age limits !

On dogs they only cover one side! Example knee , shoulder- the other side is automatically preexisting!
Read the fine print! Ask them to fax you or email you the contract before you buy it- it is like buying a car extended warranty- you should be able to read the fine print before purchase

I have all adoptees and I have noooo doubt they would do everything possible to wiggle out- vases on my lengthy conversations with different company reps-

I was all for pet insurance until I researched it to death-

I got a Care Credit card - use to 6 month promos and and put away monthly automatic withdrawal the amount I would pay for pet insurance for my crew into a slush fund account

It is a very individual decision based on your individual pet age and health-

Keep us posted
Just my two cents

 

[heyheyhaven]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I really appriciate it. (y)

I haven't done much reaserch yet, I just got the pamphlets from my vet's office on Monday. But you have deffinetly given me some stuff to look out for.

I am pretty sure they will consider his sinus issue a preexisting condition. Since it is probably 80% of all his vet visits.

I will look into the Care Credit Card too, I have seen that mentioned on a few other posts.

Thanks again!

 

[AColeman]

We have care credit and healthy paws as well. After extensive research on different companies we felt HP was for us. Definitely do your research to find the best fit for you, and like previous posters havesaid, your sinus issue will likely not be coverable. Good luck on your search!

 

[admin]

Hello everyone,
I have a wonderful 10 month old Sphynx baby named Dobby. He's the love of my life, but we have had some health stuggles. Nothing serious, thankfully. But we have been battling a sinus issue since I brought him home. I did the math on how much his vet visits have been and was shocked.
So I was wanting to look into pet insurence, since he obviously needs it. I talked to my vet and they accept all types of pet insurence. They gave me a pamphlet on VPI Pet Insurence and ASPCA Pet Health Insurence.

I was wondering how many of you guys do have pet health insurence? Which do you recommend? Any you deffinetly don't? I don't know if it makes a difference, but I live in Illinois.

I would greatly appreciate your openions and reveiws.
Thanks everyone.

A few threads on pet insurance - http://sphynxlair.com/community/threads/kitty-insurance.11019/
http://sphynxlair.com/community/threads/pet-health-insurance.27594/#post-334182

 

[assibassi]

we have VPI and love it . We have the Dog on it too that we just got and his Wellnessplan for a year is about 300 dollars and the insurance with Wellness is under 30 dollars a month . The Cat is actualy cheaper , he is only 18 dollars a month .

 

[Amy31]

I'm looking into pet plan, what would you say it's worth going for the most expensive plan they have? And can you claim most vet bills? I'm pretty clueless and my vets are useless!

Hi, we live in the UK, we have insurance with pet plan. Unless you are extremely rich, or your vet is extremely cheap, then I would get insurance without a doubt. Even better if it is a company that works with your vet. we have the covered for life type insurance.
A few years ago Spartacus needed a life saving operation that ended up costing nearly £4000... Any monies we paid out were immediately repaid within a few days of claiming it. His monthly direct debit for the insurance was £17. I was surprised that it didn't increase the premium.
Sparky made a full recovery.

 

[Brutus]

Amy31,
We went for a plan that gave ' for life cover' and £4000 worth of cover per year, we did not opt for the most expensive as that offered things we thought were not applicable to us.
I believe that the 'for life cover' isn't available from a lot of pet insurers, and that was the deciding factor in our choice.
We have an excess of £75, so we would have to pay for 'small' ailments, and check ups, but that's okay with us.
When Sparky had the operation, everything was covered by Petplan....scans, bandages, medicine, post op checks, etc. apart from the first £75.
Our vet was superb with the paperwork, and so were Petplan reimbursing us within days of paying anything out.
Hope this helps.

 

[Amy31]

Amy31,
We went for a plan that gave ' for life cover' and £4000 worth of cover per year, we did not opt for the most expensive as that offered things we thought were not applicable to us.
I believe that the 'for life cover' isn't available from a lot of pet insurers, and that was the deciding factor in our choice.
We have an excess of £75, so we would have to pay for 'small' ailments, and check ups, but that's okay with us.
When Sparky had the operation, everything was covered by Petplan....scans, bandages, medicine, post op checks, etc. apart from the first £75.
Our vet was superb with the paperwork, and so were Petplan reimbursing us within days of paying anything out.
Hope this helps.

This helps greatly!! Like with your selfs the smaller things are not an issue with me, I just worry incase god forbid I ever have to pay out a large sum which I know I'll never have, in that case I can get right to it! Thank you