Pet Insurance Help

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

I have seen some people talk about Pet Insurance, but there have been some skewed numbers I have seen based off of quotes I have gotten via the internet for two Insurance companies.

I have done my research, and basically its down to PetPlan vs. Healthy Paws.

Is there anyone out there that has tried both and has reviews for me?

Based off my research I like that there is no annual $ limit for Healthy Paws (regarded as the best)

But with PetPlan I feel like the Offic visit & exam fee coverage is great.

Right now the plans I am leaning towards are....

1. PetPlan

• Silver 90% reimbursement @ $100 deductible. ($27.10/month)
• Bronze 100% reimbursement @ $100 deductible ($32.23/month)
  • And yes both these prices includes the "Doodle" and Register online discounts!

2. Healthy Paws

• 80% reimbursement @ $250 deductible ($29.36/month)
• 90% reimbursement @ $100 deductible ($35.90/month)
  • Does Healthy Paws have any discount rates?

Please help me out with some ideas here as to which Insurance and Plan I should take? 

Healthy Paws is significantly higher, but people say its better? I like PetPlan though because its cheaper and I would hope to never have to use it (fingers crossed) Also, isn't $10,000 or $14,000 annual limit pretty high? What are chances of actually going over?

Please help me make some decisions! Thanks!!! 

[Adrianne Matzkin]

We have pet plan, silver, 200 deductible with 0 copay

I have had to use to for UTI for Samantha, not a lot of money but getting reimbursed some of it was nice.

We have a member here whose doodle went through chemotherapy and we very pleased to have all but 200.00 reimbursed. 

I am thrilled that you have done so much research. I don't know anything about Healthy Paws. Why are they so much more expensive? The no annual limit? 

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

Adrianne,

My guess is the no annual limit is what makes it more expensive.  So you have the 100% reimbursement for $200 deductible?  Whats your monthly pay if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, I am hoping to do silver PetPlan I think.

[Brittney & Cally]

I have Pet Plans Gold plan with a 200 dollar deductible and 90% reimbursement. I am very happy with them. When doing research I also found these to be the best two companies but ultimately went with Pet Plan and I could not be more pleased.

[Jennifer & Truffle]

We went with Healthy Paws because it's an annual deductible. If I recall correctly, Pet Plan's deductible is per incident, meaning, for example, that if the dog has two different problems in the same year, you'd pay the deductible twice with Pet Plan. That may also explain why Healthy Paws costs a bit more.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Ah, Pet Insurance, my favorite topic in the whole world, ugh!

Keep in mind with Pet Plan that if you have to go to a specialist or a 24 hour clinic and it isn't an emergency they are going to reimburse at 80%.  As an example, although we have the 100% pay plan with PetPlan (after our deductible) when we went to an Ortho Vet for Lucy's CCL surgery it was reimbursed at 80%, not the 100% if we had stayed at our regular Vet.  She could have done the surgery, but it isn't her specialty.  She does maybe 12 a year where the Ortho probably does that in a couple days or a week.  When we did Chemo for our Sophie, we opted to stay with our regular Vet vs. going to an Oncology center so we were reimbursed at 100% instead of the 80% at an Oncology center.  

I'm not sure if Healthy Paws reimburses the same at both places or not.  I didn't go with them on my 2nd time around because they didn't cover the office call or consultation fee.  As an example the consultation fee at the Ortho for Lucy's CCL surgery was $100.  So I would have had a $200 deductible and then another $100 I had to pay before they paid anything.

Some of the PetPlan policies also have a death benefit of up to $1000 or whatever you paid for your dog.  Unfortunately, that is something that came into play for us.  

As for the yearly cap with PetPlan.  Right now I believe that cap is $22,000.  To me, if I have more than $22,000 in Vet bills on one dog in a year, I've got huge problems.  I can't even imagine what that would be.  We had one member here whose dog went through several years of chemo and an amputation because of it (in California) and his reimbursements from PetPlan across a few years was like $25,000 so he wasn't even close to the $22,000 a year cap.  Some of it could have to do with where you live and how expensive Vet's in your area are.  Mine are not that expensive.  However, get into NYC or Chicago and they go up drastically.

I can also tell you that with Pet Plan your premiums are going to go up every year.  I'm not sure how Healthy Paws works.

All of my experience has been with PetPlan.  I have filled claims for CCL surgery, Chemo treatments, and am currently going through allergy testing and treatment as an on-going claim.  I can say that I have not had anything denied that I couldn't not go right back to the policy and find their reasoning.  There was one claim that I was disappointed in but once I read the policy again, I understand.  Gotta read the policy and understand it up front.  That one dealt with a vacation cancellation.

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

Thanks so much for all the insight.  I appreciate it.  I think I am leaning towards PetPlan as well, but I am going to use all the information and question you posed here for me and ask them directly to Healthy Paws when I can to ask them about their coverage that way I know what they do vs. PetPlan.  I will let you know what I find from doing so.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I can share that I have Pet Plan and their claim service has been fantastic.  I've had to use them a few times, and it has paid for itself and more.  As long as all the paperwork is submitted, I found they turn a claim around in just a couple weeks.

[DonMarie and Picco]

These premiums are higher than mine. I'm with ASPCA level 2, 90% and $100 ded. I've made a couple claims which they repaid promptly. I was paying $23 month but after 2 claims (within a year) it went up to $25 but not complaining about it. The only drawback was to get off their incessant mailing list!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

DonMarie -- With the plan that you have though it doesn't look like any hereditary conditions, such as hip dysplasia, which is a big ticket item in doodles, would be covered under your plan.  Anything that would be considered genetic/hereditary wouldn't be covered.  I'm guessing in a Golden Retriever mixed breed they would even consider cancer genetic/hereditary.  If I read correctly, you would have to have level 3 or 4 with ASPCA for these things to be considered.

[DonMarie and Picco]

Okay, that puts it to $36 month. Thanks for pointing that out! 

[Traz, Karen & Dale]

2013 was a busy vet bill year for us and Traz.  We have PetPlan and it has been wonderful.  As Jane, Guinness & Murphy have stated in their post, it has more than paid for itself.  Without this insurance, we probably would have had to make heartbreaking decisions with our precious boy.  I am not familiar with Healthy Paws.  Good luck with your decision :-)

[Julie and Max]

I also went with petplan, but I haven't had to use it yet. When I was researching pet insurance, the top two that I found were trupanion and petplan. (I am in Canada though so I don't think Healthy Paws is available. I had to make similar choices between the two, trupanion had no limit but it was quite a bit more, and I figured it was highly doubtful I would go over the yearly limit.