I have never used pet insurance, so I have no input. I hope others have something to add.
Carole
14 years ago
I’ve no experience with insurance either, but I asked my Sister-in-law, who has insurance through AKC. She pays a monthly fee for a specified amount of insurance. After the first wellness check, your dog is covered. Some policies cover everything up to the specified amount and others cover certain items. With the AKC policy, you pay the bill, the vet provides all of the claim info and then AKC will reimburse. So for example, she pays $300/year for $1500 worth of coverage.
Don’t know if this helps you or not, and I’m still not sold on the idea.
josiem
14 years ago
I have no experience with pet insurance either. My friend just sent me a link to her pet insurance to look into.
I guess it is a gamble, if you have a very healthy dog, how many times are you going to see the Vet yearly? Shots aren’t that expensive, the insurance cost 540/year. On the other hand, if do you end up having a sickly dog, the insurance is definitely worth it.
With my other dog Zeus, the medical cost was very high in the last 4 months of his life, we must have spent close to 6 k for his surgery etc. But before that, he saw the vet every 3 years for his rabies shots… that was it.
I have had 2 gastrointestinal issues w/my border collie that ended up with 3-4 days at the emergengy clinic. Paying for 10 years on insurance would have been worth it for just 1 of the visits. My GSD with her lymphoma the last 6 months of her life ran about $6M. I guess I am thinking the very young and the very old are the most likely to need the insurance barring an accident. The major thing I can think of in a younger active dog would be an ACL tear. Again I think insurance would be worth it then. I guess it is a game of how lucky do I feel.
I won’t mention names but one owner carries $20k insurance on her dog. She does it because she does not want to be put into a situation where she can not afford to save her dog’s life.
We have never had pet insurance either. When we got Ivan we thought about it as a friend with a GSD recommended we get it. We looked into it briefly but never got further than that. I’m interested in what evceryone thinks.
Andrea
14 years ago
I prefer to pay per visit because when I looked into it, it seemed that too many things weren’t covered. The fine print was a bit overwhelming, so I chose not to go ahead with it. I would be interested to hear what you decide though.
I have never used pet insurance, so I have no input. I hope others have something to add.
I’ve no experience with insurance either, but I asked my Sister-in-law, who has insurance through AKC. She pays a monthly fee for a specified amount of insurance. After the first wellness check, your dog is covered. Some policies cover everything up to the specified amount and others cover certain items. With the AKC policy, you pay the bill, the vet provides all of the claim info and then AKC will reimburse. So for example, she pays $300/year for $1500 worth of coverage.
Don’t know if this helps you or not, and I’m still not sold on the idea.
I have no experience with pet insurance either. My friend just sent me a link to her pet insurance to look into.
I guess it is a gamble, if you have a very healthy dog, how many times are you going to see the Vet yearly? Shots aren’t that expensive, the insurance cost 540/year. On the other hand, if do you end up having a sickly dog, the insurance is definitely worth it.
With my other dog Zeus, the medical cost was very high in the last 4 months of his life, we must have spent close to 6 k for his surgery etc. But before that, he saw the vet every 3 years for his rabies shots… that was it.
I have had 2 gastrointestinal issues w/my border collie that ended up with 3-4 days at the emergengy clinic. Paying for 10 years on insurance would have been worth it for just 1 of the visits. My GSD with her lymphoma the last 6 months of her life ran about $6M. I guess I am thinking the very young and the very old are the most likely to need the insurance barring an accident. The major thing I can think of in a younger active dog would be an ACL tear. Again I think insurance would be worth it then. I guess it is a game of how lucky do I feel.
I won’t mention names but one owner carries $20k insurance on her dog. She does it because she does not want to be put into a situation where she can not afford to save her dog’s life.
We have never had pet insurance either. When we got Ivan we thought about it as a friend with a GSD recommended we get it. We looked into it briefly but never got further than that. I’m interested in what evceryone thinks.
I prefer to pay per visit because when I looked into it, it seemed that too many things weren’t covered. The fine print was a bit overwhelming, so I chose not to go ahead with it. I would be interested to hear what you decide though.