Is Pet Insurance Worth It?

 

Is Pet Insurance Worth It?

Dog with sign


Yes, making sure your pet is protected in case of emergencies is worth it. It’s just that pet insurance comes with conditions you wouldn't normally have to deal with in human insurance coverage. Of course, these restrictions make sense, but they could leave you wondering if pet insurance is worth it in the long run. 

Many pet owners want the best possible quality of life and care for their pets, even if it means paying more to insure an older animal. Before we can decide if insuring your pet is worth it or not, let’s consider how pet insurance works.

How Pet Insurance Plans Works

For pet lovers, “Yes, of course,” is the immediate response that comes to mind when asked if insuring a pet is worth it. Then they are faced with policies and realities that seem to defeat the purpose of covering the pet in the first place, which is to cut the overall costs of veterinary bills.

Isn’t it interesting that only 6 percent of the 87 million pet owners in the USA have pet insurance? In other words, more than 80 million families that own pets have not purchased coverage for their beloved pets. Why? The pet insurance industry is not easy to understand. And people often fail to reconcile how much actually goes towards paying for medical care. Other factors that discourage pet owners from insuring their pets may include:

·         Insurance companies often require pet owners to provide records of the pet’s health history or an examination by a veterinarian.

·         Unlike human policies, pet insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions.

·         Insurance companies charge higher premiums for older pets, especially dogs.

·         Pet insurance usually does not cover routine care, such as prophylaxis and vaccines.

·         Some policies may require pet owners to be solely responsible for a mandatory annual wellness treatment.

·         While pet insurance covers dental care, some policies do not cover periodontal diseases.

·         Some pet insurance policies exclude bilateral conditions such as cataracts and luxating patella.

·         Most pet insurers operate a reimbursement-based model rather than vet-direct pay options.

All of these might seem like good reasons to shun pet insurance or even regard them as some sort of scam but the question you must ask yourself is how much you are willing to pay for your pet's medical treatment. Plus, whether pet insurance is worth it or not depends to a large extent on the type of policy you choose.

Types of Pet Insurance Policies

Pet owners would do well to consider factors like environment, temperament, and age when shopping for insurance plans for their pets. Your pet's age, personality, and living environment can help you make an informed choice between Accident-Only (AO) and Accident & Illness (AI) insurance plans. These are the two types of insurance plans, each with subcategories including:

Lifetime Policies

Maximum Benefit Policies, and 

Time-limited Policies

To Insure or Not to Insure

What is worse than the dollars you spend on pet insurance premiums is a situation where you have to put down your beloved pet because it is suffering and you can’t pay for treatment. They have names for everything these days and this particular dilemma is called economic euthanasia.

Truth, pet insurance feels like a rip-off when you consider that some policies exclude routine veterinary visits, deductibles are almost unavoidable, pre-existing conditions aren’t covered, you must pay for treatment upfront, and most of all, you may never have to file a claim anyway.

Still, pet insurance may be more than worth it if for no other reason but to ensure your pet never comes face to face with economic euthanasia. The question remains; how much are you willing to pay for your pet's life? Answer that, and you know whether or not insuring your pet is worth it after all.

 

 


 



 


 


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