Pet Insurance

As costs of medical care of all types increase, pet insurance has started to gain momentum in veterinary medical care. More and more pet owners are considering and using it for their pets. As a veterinarian, I appreciate pet owners planning ahead for the financial implications of the care they want to provide their dog. 

The truth is every pet parent has a different line for what they are willing to consider for their dog. Some of these are pet parent specific based on their life experience and values and some are dog specific because of a specific dog's temperament, needs, or function. What is universally true, is that not having the financial flexibility to afford the care you want for your dog adds significant stress.  Having a plan in advance for those unexpected costs, makes those days just a little easier on you.

Is insurance for me?

If you are one of those individuals that is independently financially secure and feel you can afford any surprise care you would want for your dog, I encourage you to ask your veterinarian about the local cost for common accidents/ illness/ injuries. If those estimates feel like something you can absorb or save for yourself then insurance may not be for you. For the rest of us, who know medical care costs can quickly become unsustainable for our families, we turn to insurance.

Pre-existing Conditions

The first thing to know about pet insurance is they have pre-existing condition clauses. Meaning after your pet has a diagnosis anything related to or caused by that diagnosis is NOT covered when getting a new plan. This applies even when switching from one insurance plan to another. Ideally this means we get an insurance plan when our dog is young and has no medical issues and stay on that plan for that dog's lifetime. Many insurance plans will allow you to adjust your deductible and some allow you to adjust % of coverage throughout the dog’s life while in the same plan. If you switch from one company to another, the new company likely will not cover anything found while you had the old plan.

Preventative Care

Next thing to know is that, unlike human insurance, preventative care is usually NOT covered by pet insurance. If you can plan for it happening and budget for it, then the likelihood is it is excluded from your pet insurance plan. If included, preventative care reimbursement typically does not exceed the amount you paid in that year. 

This includes things like annual exam, vaccination, flea and tick or heartworm prevention, wellness labs, and even dentals or fixing procedures depending on the plan.

Pet insurance is designed for those unexpected expenses. The broken leg puppy, the allergy dog that visits the vet as often as the family gets drive through for dinner, the dog with cancer where the family elects treatment, or the dog that loves fetch and needs an expensive surgery on his knee to help him get back to playing ball. This is where most pet owners find the real value in pet insurance.

Picking Your Veterinarian

Another key difference from human insurance, is you typically get to choose your veterinarian. “In network” restrictions in pet insurance are very uncommon. This means there is often a statement about how exams are covered versus treatments. I recommend you know how the insurance you choose works.

Annual Roll Over

This is very similar to how your health insurance probably works and will feel very familiar to you. There will be a deductible, which can be set higher or lower based on how much you are willing to pay per month. For a defined 365 day period (some are from date of enrollment, some are from a specific date the insurer dictates), when a covered issues comes up you pay 100% until you have reached your deductible. After you have reached your deductible your insurer reimburses (most of the time you still have to pay the full bill at the clinic) you the % based on your plan. In these plans you have the one deductible for the year regardless of the number of issues that come up in this year. This type of insurance is particularly beneficial if your pet has multiple one time things come up in a single year.

Incident for Lifetime

These policies work differently. They still have an agreed deductible and % reimbursed outlined in the policy BUT it is per incident. So if you have your dog breaks their leg and get diagnosed with a chronic medical condition 3 weeks apart, you will have to pay the deductible for EACH issue, which can mean multiple deductibles in a short timeline, but they do not reset annually. So in the example of breaking their leg and diagnosing a chronic medical condition, let's say you did surgery to fix the broken leg (paid the whole deductible) then you diagnose the chronic medical condition (and pay the whole deductible again) but then the regular rechecks for the chronic medical condition for the rest of the dog’s life is covered at the % agreed. And if later the broken leg needs a revision surgery, that is also covered at the % agreed without triggering another deductible. This type of insurance is particularly beneficial for dogs that need repeated treatment throughout their lives, but you may pay the deductible multiple times in one calendar year.