Pet insurance Yay or Nay

[Mom of 3babies]

Huge debate going on between my hubby and I, I vote for pet insurance,he say it's not necessary.  

Any recommendation for a company ?. 

Thank you. 

[Wasseem Sidhom]

we did the puppy care plan through PetSmart.

It was good.  Covered all the shots and the neutering. Definitely made up for its cost.

Probably gonna continue with them next year.

[Kimberly Cook]

Definitely! We have Healthy Paws and there is another one that is supposed to be good. If there comes a day you need it you will wish you had it. Emergency vet bills easily get to $4,000 and over. Two of my friends dogs recently had vet bills over $3,000 and did not have insurance.

http://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/

[Gail and Bailey]

We have Pet Plan. We hope we never have to use it...... but we feel comfortable having it!  No different than health insurance for humans!

[Tina McNerthney]

We use Healthy Paws. Our pup is 10 months old and we are pleased that we have not met our $250 deductible yet as Baxter has been relatively healthy.

For under $30 a month (and you can get lower premiums with a higher deductible), I have peace of mind knowing I won't have to make a hard financial decision if Baxter needs costly care in the future.

Healthy Paws is based in the Northwest and has great customer service. One thing to keep in mind - office visit fees aren't covered - at least that is what I was told and it may depend on the type of visit.

The PetSmart plan that Wasseem has seems to be for routine care. Some vets (including ours in Portland) over a plan that covers all vaccines and significantly reduces cost of spay/neuter but don't confuse this with most pet health insurance plans, which are not for routine care and specifically exclude routine care such as vaccines, check-ups, spay/neuter. For Baxter's first year, we signed him up for our vet's health care plan ($200 annual fee) which provides all standard vaccines at no cost and a 50% reduction in office visit and spay/neuter costs and any other surgeries and prescriptions. Similar to the PetSmart plan Wasseem described, our vet's plan has more than paid off. 

We insure Baxter under Healthy Paws for accidents and anything non-routine that comes up. Not sure if we'll purchase our vet's health care plan again this year, but might because it keeps routine office visit costs down.

Good luck!

[Gretchen Nastrom]

We use Healthy Paws too.  I wasn't going to get it, but Preston is a notrious sock stealer and generally gets into anything he can.  Within 2 months of getting it, we had our first claim and we've met our $250 deductible for the year.  Healthy Paws does have really good customer service, and there is even an app for your phone to track your claims.  We pay about $23/month with a $250 deductible, so I feel like it's a good thing to have.

Even if your dog is well-behaved and doesn't get into things like Preston does, I would still recommend getting it.  My brother's dog got bit by another dog, and that was all covered under their pet insurance. 

I do also buy the plan at my vet's office that covers Preston's shots for the year.  He is probably better insured than I am!

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

We have Healthy Paws. But, if your hub wins the argument, at least plan to put away money monthly in an account to save for the just-in-case, so you never have to be caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. Good luck!

[Chris & Abby]

I chose Pet Plan with 90% coverage on claims. There are a few options for deductibles and coverages. I've never insured a pet before but after reading about what some of the Doodles do, I knew it would be a wise choice.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Pet health insurance is like any other insurance. It offers peace of mind for those times when medical bills soar due to unexpected accidents or illness. With that said, we cover both doodles with Embrace Pet Insurance and have since they were puppies. The advantage of covering them early is that no covered expenses will be denied due to pre existing conditions. I believe that most medical claims for pets come in the first years and last years of their lives, so it makes sense to start early. So far we've always met the yearly deductible and had claims covered at 80% (per our particular plan). The only time pet insurance wouldn't be absolutely necessary, IMO, is if you always have $5000-$10,000 in the bank to cover emergencies.

[Michele Kiss]

I have it, for peace of mind. 

A few years ago my 9-month-old kitten got VERY sick (wouldn't eat, rapidly lost weight, wouldn't drink, couldn't even hold himself up, starting turning yellow / jaundiced.) The vets exhausted everything that could be wrong until the only option left was $5000 in "exploratory surgery" that they didn't think he could survive anyway, and might not reveal the cause. He was in so much pain it was NOT worth it for him to suffer more and we had to put him to sleep. 

In that case, we were "lucky" (ease of mind-wise, only) because it was a simple choice: the surgery wouldn't cure him and would prolong his pain. It simply didn't make sense to do to him. But in another situation we easily could have had to choose between many thousands of dollars and putting him down, essentially, over money. 

Other friends of ours' beloved lab needed over $10,000 in surgery. It was a no-brainer, they were going to do it, but that's a huge debt to go in to. 

I never EVER want to have to make a choice like that because of money, so ever since then, we've had pet insurance for both our older cat and our labradoodle. 

Our insurance covers "emergency" and sickness, not routine care (though some policies do.) We too use Healthy Paws. I think we have a 90% coverage with a small deductible - so, if we're ever in that situation, they'll cover almost everything with us just out a few hundred and our beloved pets taken care of. It's really just intended to allow us to make the best choice for our pets, medically, rather than make financial-based decisions. 

We have used it recently actually, for our cat, and got a pretty sizable chunk back. Customer service was good and in fact, our vet was amazing - they said, give us the form, we'll take care of everything. They filled everything out, sent it to the insurance, and even dealt with all the follow up questions. We didn't lift a finger to file the claim, just got the check back in the mail. 

My pets will NEVER be uninsured. It just makes me feel better and I consider it part of the cost of ownership. 

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

If your husband has about $8,000-$10,000 handy that he is happy to pay to a vet hospital should your puppy ingest, say a sock and require emergency surgery or perhaps tear a ligament or as in the case of my pup have a condition called OCD that required surgery on both shoulders and extensive rehab then by all means skip the insurance. I don't mean to be glib but it would seem to me to be utter folly not to have insurance. 

[Michele Kiss]

Wow, crazy to read how many people have Healthy Paws, btw! I didn't know they were so popular. 

[Tina McNerthney]

Michele, I was thinking the same thing. Healthy Paws has earned a good reputation and we're from Portland, OR, so we wanted to support a company based in the Northwest (Healthy Paws is out of Seattle). Reading all the stories, I am glad we have good pet insurance for Baxter. Our pets are dependent on us - even more so than kids - to ensure their best quality of life. If we don't, there's no government sponsored plan or community safety net for them to fall back on. And, for $25-$30 a month, it's a small price to pay.