Insurance

[Sue Whiteman]

Has anyone made the decision to take out insurance against treatment and/or surgery for their dogs? Why or why not and has it been valuable?

Thanks...am thinking about it and would appreciate some input.

 

Sue in France

[Bill Fosher]

Last time I looked into it, it was a bad deal. I was going to end up spending more money on the premiums and the co-payments than I would pay in vet fees. This only makes sense, after all -- the insurance company has to make a profit, and pets don't live long enough to make the profit by investing the premiums.

 

If you have self-discipline, just take the amount the premium would have been and put it into an interest-bearing account every month. If a dog has an unexpected major surgery, you may have to supplement your account, but I can just about guarantee you'll come out ahead in the long run.

 

 

 

------------------

Bill Fosher

Surry, NH

[dot me not]

I agree with Bill. When I worked with the local vets one of the doctors sat down and figured out that you'd be seriously losing money by purchasing a policy on a dog. The deductables were way up there usually what a surgery itself would run. There was just no way for you to come out on top. Now horses are another matter. You can get a good life insurance policy for about 3% of the value of the horse and major medical coverage for $150/year with a $250 deductable and $5000 worth of surgical coverage. Definitely well worth it with horses being as accident prone as they are.

Lydia

[Smokjbc]

Hi,

 

Actually I never saw a deductible more than $40-50 per incident, one plan was $50 per year. The rates are low, if you put what I spend on insurance in a savings account, you better hope nothing major happens for 4-5 years if thats what you have to go on. Yes, you may lose out in the end, if you don't have to use it- but thats what insurance does, you don't expect to get your money back, just your moneys worth- which for some people might mean not having to make a choice between surgery and euthanasia when catastrophic injuries occur. I keep the most basic plan, I agree that the vax and heartworm coverage and the other bells and whistles is better being part of your budget, along with some savings of course. Where pet insurance works well is in the event of something major- fractured legs (in my area that starts at $800-$1000), ACL injuries, major cow death injuries , etc. Its certainly not for everyone, but I do think its a good option, provided you have a good insurance company, for these dogs. Most of us have multiple dogs as well, and keeping $1000+ on hand for every dog for big bad stuff is not always possible- and I know people who have had bad enough luck to have several of their dogs having medical issues at the same time. Also, I will probably retire the insurance when I retire the dog, the rates will go up with age, and I'm more worried about injury than illness- which because I work for a vet I can handle, financially, most of that.

 

Jaime

[Guest rtphokie]

I'm about to sign up for coverage on my dogs.

Within the last three months I've spent about $2000 EACH on two of my dogs. One tore her pectineus (Adductor/groin area) muscle. Diagnosing and rehabbing that was almost $2000, luckily no surgery needed. now granted, insurance probably would not have covered rehab. my other dog currently has an abdominal mass and is going in for surgery this week. Her bill will be around $2000 total for diagnosis and surgery. A policy to cover all four of my dogs would be about $48 a month for the basic, with add'l cancer coverage on the two oldest (7 & 9). If I opened a savings account and deposited $50 a month, it would take over 6 years to accumulate the $4000 I needed these last few months. So yes, I'm opting for coverage!

 

The only way I see a savings account being better than an insurance plan is if you got lucky and had no major problems with any of your dogs until you had nicely padded that account and then your dogs only got injured at intervals that would allow that account to grow again. Unfortunately, I'm not that lucky!

 

The best option would be BOTH savings and insurance.

 

Laura

Raleigh, NC

[Bill Fosher]

Wow. I think if my vet charged those sorts of rates I would be considering insurance as well.

 

Just by way of comparison, the worst vet bills I have had were for my non-working Australian Shepherd, who had to have both ACLs repaired within about 8 months. Diagnosis, surgery, pain meds, etc., all came to about $1,600 or $1,700 total for both knees -- $800 to $850 per knee.

 

It'll be a long, long, time before I pay $2,000 for diagnosis, I hope.

 

If you don't count routine meds such as Frontline and heartworm preventative, my total vet bill for 2002 (assuming nothing major happens in the next 30 hours and 45 minutes) came to just over $100 per dog. With 17 dogs (13 Border collies, the above-referenced useless mutt, and three guard dogs), that's an appreciable sum, but nowhere near what the insurance and deductibles would have been.

 

 

 

------------------

Bill Fosher

Surry, NH

[Smokjbc]

Diagnosis, surgery, pain meds, etc., all came to about $1,600 or $1,700 total for both knees -- $800 to $850 per knee.

>>>

 

Consider Bill that my current plan would have covered $500 of that, per knee-so about $1000 total. At my current rate, I would have to pay insurance for just under seven years to match that benefit. Since I can expect the risk of ACL injuries to start at 2 or so and end when the dog is retired, say at 11, thats most of his working life to save up the money to do those knees. Of course, its true that you might not never need it, and my vet costs currently are very low- but I like that cushion that means that I can use a specialist, or do an extensive procedure without being a major hardship. The $13 a month is definitely not a hardship at all.

[Guest rtphokie]

It'll be a long, long, time before I pay $2,000 for diagnosis, I hope.

 

Unfortunately, my dogs seem to develop unique, hard to diagnose problems! And I did not pay $2000 for just a diagnosis. It also included rehab for Sierra's muscle tear (2x a day for 3x a week for 6 weeks) because she couldn't walk and surgery for Casey's mysterious abdominal mass. Sierra is almost fully recovered, just a few more months of exercises at home with a gradual increase to exercise and she should be as good as new.

 

Now, I probably did come close to $2000 for a diagnosis for Casey's Wobblers (CVI), which included a mylegram, x-rays and numerous visits to numerous specialists over a 7 month time period. The mylegram alone was about $900.

 

Laura

[mandiefurniss]

I have coverage for my dogs and the cat.

When Bindi came down with a tick 2 mths ago, the vet bills (I still got a discount)was just over $1000.00 for treatment (not that it did any bloody good). I got a rebate of $850.00 back. I pay the insurance in with my house and contents insurance once a year. Per animal it is $50.00.

Money well spent.

We certainly didn't have a thousand dollars lying around when Bindi got sick.

We have been lucky with our animals in that apart from Bindi, haven't needed to go to the vets expect for a 6mthly checkup and their yearly vac's(touch wood).

We have alot of people that come into our work, their animals need MAJOR surgery and that are at wits end because there is no way they can pay it up front. We have a system that they can pay it off over time. One woman had said to me that she put of bringing her cat in for his leg (had a massive tear init from a dog attack)for a week because she couldn't have afforded the treatment. Instead of costing her mininal amount for stitching ect, it cost her double the amount for treatment because the wound was infected so bad. She said that if she had pet insurance, she would have bought the cat in straight away. I felt sad and angry at this lady, but there are alot of people who put of treatment because of the high costs.

I think pet insurance is a great thing.

Just have to be careful that the company who is insuring is a well known one and not a fly by in the night agent, who folds after 6mths and you end back at square one.

Mandie

[mandiefurniss]

I have coverage for my dogs and the cat.

When Bindi came down with a tick 2 mths ago, the vet bills (I still got a discount)was just over $1000.00 for treatment (not that it did any bloody good). I got a rebate of $850.00 back. I pay the insurance in with my house and contents insurance once a year. Per animal it is $50.00.

Money well spent.

We certainly didn't have a thousand dollars lying around when Bindi got sick.

We have been lucky with our animals in that apart from Bindi, haven't needed to go to the vets expect for a 6mthly checkup and their yearly vac's(touch wood).

We have alot of people that come into our work, their animals need MAJOR surgery and that are at wits end because there is no way they can pay it up front. We have a system that they can pay it off over time. One woman had said to me that she put of bringing her cat in for his leg (had a massive tear init from a dog attack)for a week because she couldn't have afforded the treatment. Instead of costing her mininal amount for stitching ect, it cost her double the amount for treatment because the wound was infected so bad. She said that if she had pet insurance, she would have bought the cat in straight away. I felt sad and angry at this lady, but there are alot of people who put of treatment because of the high costs.

I think pet insurance is a great thing.

Just have to be careful that the company who is insuring is a well known one and not a fly by in the night agent, who folds after 6mths and you end back at square one.

Mandie