Pet Insurance. Is it worth the cost?

[Mike Cutler]

To All

I am looking for some information on Pet Insurance. Is it worth it? how does it work? Is it accepted everywhere, or do you submit for reimbursement? Good companies, bad companies, types of policies? Information like that.
A little background;
This past year I lost both of my female Vizsla's very suddenly, within 6 months of each other. The vet bills were pretty significant, but that wasn't my priority at the time. Reflecting back though, maybe some of the cost could have been reduced, or offset. We're probably talking $2500+ for both of the girls.
We now have a 13 week old male Vizsla puppy, Finn. After taking him for his first two office visits and boosters, I started to think about pet insurance to cut some of the cost with him. We also have a horse, 3 cats, and two parrots. All of our animals, except the parrots, see the same Vet for everything.
We apparently have pet insurance available through MetLife at work. Haven't a clue of it's any good???
I've never bought pet insurance. It seems that after having pets for some 30 + years, I should know something,but I don't.
Any insight, or information would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[Frederick Skelly]

I talked to a veterinary surgeon after a dog got hit by a car. He told me that insurance wouldnt have helped much for the work he had to do. I got busy and dropped it without doing any more homework. I'll be watching this thread to learn more, so thanks for posting it Mike.
Fred

[Bryan Lisowski]

In some respects I think it depends on the vet. A small practice may not take. I would talk to your vet since it seems you are a good customer, maybe ask some of your questions and if the bills from the 2 dogs that passed would have been different had you had insurance.

[Greg Parrish]

We have it and the answer is it’s worth it when you use it and seems a waste when you don’t. Much like all insurance. Our dog had a car accident and pneumonia and both times the insurance proved invaluable. In fact they will prob spend the rest of his life trying to break even on what they paid for those two events. Ours called VPI through Nationwide.

[Mike Cutler]

In some respects I think it depends on the vet. A small practice may not take. I would talk to your vet since it seems you are a good customer, maybe ask some of your questions and if the bills from the 2 dogs that passed would have been different had you had insurance.

Bryan
We've had the same Vet since 2004.
He was the Vet we chose when we first got our horse off the tracks.
The horse was a train wreck at that point, and this was "the guy", other trainers used to put their horses back together for a race. I thought he was exclusively a Mobile Equine Vet at first. Found out later he had an actual practice. He was also a journeyman farrier which was a big help. Transferred care of our dogs and cats to him, because we really liked him, and still do.
I take Finn in for another round of shots next week. I'll talk to his office staff about insurance. Great suggestion.

[Frederick Skelly]

We have it and the answer is it’s worth it when you use it and seems a waste when you don’t. Much like all insurance. Our dog had a car accident and pneumonia and both times the insurance proved invaluable. In fact they will prob spend the rest of his life trying to break even on what they paid for those two events. Ours called VPI through Nationwide.

I just looked at tha Nationwide plan and it looks like they have 3 options - wellness, major medical and "whole pet" with wellness. Just out of curiousity, which one do you carry Greg?

[Greg Parrish]

I just looked at tha Nationwide plan and it looks like they have 3 options - wellness, major medical and "whole pet" with wellness. Just out of curiousity, which one do you carry Greg?

I think it’s the major medical option.

[Frederick Skelly]

I think it’s the major medical option.

Thank you!

[Michael Weber]

I fervently hope that pet insurance does not follow the business model followed by the human health insurance/provider industry.

[Lee DeRaud]

I fervently hope that pet insurance does not follow the business model followed by the human health insurance/provider industry.

When I looked at it, the model that came to mind was "dental insurance": you have to get pretty lucky (or very unlucky from the pet's viewpoint) to have the numbers work out over the long run.

[roger wiegand]

Think about the economics-- they need to collect more in premiums than they pay out in benefits to make money, so their prices are set appropriately. On average most customers will pay more in than they get out.

Insurance is designed to share the risk of major, but rare, losses among a group of people. Most of us won't have our house burn to the ground, or have a million dollar hospital stay, but for most of us those would be financially devastating events, so we're willing to pay into a pool to cover that risk. If the coverage is for common, predictable events then it's not really insurance but rather some kind of payment plan to help people who can't save for such events on their own-- the common dental "insurance" that only covers routine visits but not major events comes to mind.

If a few thousand bucks falls into the "financially devastating" class of events for someone then perhaps they should consider vet insurance (or not having a pet). Otherwise just set aside savings against the likely but unpredictable eventuality of a big vet bill. Remember that, just like at the casino, at the end of the day the house always wins.

The only exception to this is where the insurance company has negotiated rates that are better than what an individual consumer is offered-- many drug and some medical plans are like this, making them worthwhile in our bizzarre healthcare/insurance system in the US. The very fragmented nature of the veterinary business makes such negotiated rates difficult for the insurance company.

[Charlie Velasquez]

As others have suggested, it’s a crap shoot.

But from experience there are two time periods I think the odds may be in your favor, as pups and late life.

With “Sampson’s” last few years we spent about ... well, I won’t say, so as to not incur incredulous replies. We did not have pet insurance and it was all out-of-pocket

With our new pup we purchased insurance. He is still going through a chewing/eating phase. We have had to visit the emergency vet several times already.
Once when he ripped open my wife’s purse and ate some of her medicine. Spent 2 nights and 3 days in the vet hospital. Pumped his stomach and had him on some sort of IV binder for chemicals in his blood. Also in that pump was an earpiece from an earbud headset, a button, and a small cellophane candy wrapper.

Then there was the time he wanted to play with our neighbor’s dog, who didn’t appreciate him and snapped at him. Cut mouth and bloody eye.

Finally when he started chewing on our Christmas lights and ate one of those miniature light bulbs. The choice was to let it pass or pump his stomach. They decided if it was still intact there was less muscle contractions with a stomach pump... it came out whole.

He is still an aggressive chewer. He has eaten the fingers from leather gloves, our infant granddaughter’s sock, the ribbon from a birthday present, a strap from a guest’s shoe, .... those things we have let pass, but you get the idea.