Simple question - Is Pet Insurance Worth it?
We have a 4 year old male Maltese so who is fairly young and healthy. Received an insurance renewal today for $450 which seems quite expensive!
What are the pros/cons of not having pet insurance?
Is Pet Insurance Worth it?
Jake84 on 04/09/2020 - 09:21
Last edited 04/09/2020 - 18:48 by 2 other users
Last edited 04/09/2020 - 18:48 by 2 other users
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Even weirder is when the person mentioning it is privileged enough to have owned at least 3 new cars…
if you are with Medibank for your private health insurance, you can get 10% off their pet insurance policy
Just like any other health insurance, it's a gamble. You need to know, however, that if something does happen to your beloved pet, the bills can run into thousands. After the big rains some months ago, our six-months-old Samoyed ate something in the garden, probably a nasty toadstool; that little bite left us little change out of a thousand dollars. Next time I'll eat the toadstool… I've got my health cover!
Be aware of the exclusions, each breed has a huge list of ‘hereditary conditions’ which they won’t cover
Also, look into what the cut-off age is. We looked into pet insurance after having to pay a few thousand dollars for emergency ligament surgery on our border collie. She was 7 years old at the time, and most of the insurance we looked at wouldn't have covered her for much longer. We decided to do what we do with our own health insurance, and put extra money away (around the same as our pet insurance payments would have been!) for emergencies. We got lucky and her other leg hasn't been a problem, but at least we'll have money ready if we need it.
Like any insurance… robbery when you dont need it - and thank fk when you do need it.
Depending on breed, it can be a blessing… Saved a mate few 1000 when his dog needed work on its legs.
Having said that some breeds maybe excluded.
Pet insurance is a little different to comprehensive car insurance.
Lets say you have an old car worth $2k, if you have an accident, you could just cop the $2k loss and get a new car. So you don't really need comprehensive insurance.
With pet insurance, your pet probably costs you like $2k as well. But lets say a $5k surgery bill comes up - you don't want to choose to put down your pet just because you can't afford to pay their surgery bill.
So pet insurance is more similar to third party insurance - there's no limit to how much you may need to pay in an accident/illness, and you don't want to have to choose between paying vs. losing your pet.
The old 'save some money in an account' isn't going to cut it.
One tip is to find insurance that has an excess. The premiums will be half the cost, but you'll only be able to use it for big bills (when you really need it).
I would argue the opposite - if it is a person you have to pull out all stops and do everything but with a pet you do have the choice to put them down.
Most pet insurance only covers half or 70% so if the bill is really huge you might still be out of luck. And you have to come up with the money first and claim later so you still need to have access to enough cash. I haven't seen one with just an excess and they cover 100% but I guess they must exist. Would have thought that would cost more though.
My cats have cost me over $6k these last couple of months but I am better off than if I'd had insurance on them since they were kittens.
I think it is a very personal decision, depending on your financial status and your risk apetite.
I used to have Medibank pet insurance for both of my dogs. When one of them turned 7 and the premium increased by ridiculous amount, like by 1/3 in the first year then by another 1/3 or so in the following year, as if to discourage me from continuing the policy. I didn't make any claim for this dog so cancelling the policy for him was an easy decision. I accept that if he needs any vet care in the future, I will pay for the cost out of my pocket.
The insurance, however, saved us about 1.5k when my other, younger dog became ill. With the insurance, I could comfortably tell the vet that he had insurance so please do any necessary tests or treatments. But I hated the $200 excess for every single medical issue. The excess is not per year, but per condition per year. This dog had quite a few issues when we adopted him so after about 2 years, I could see that either the cost of treatment would be roughly the same as the excess (i.e. can't claim), or his conditions became pre-existing (once a claim is made for a condition, it automatically becomes pre-existing so is no longer covered by the insurance, i.e. can't make a claim neither). The insurance sort of became redundant at this point so again, I accept to pay out of pocket for his vet care.
We've been going for about 3 years without pet insurance and I'm comfortable with paying for their care directly from my pocket. I don't regret cancelling the policies because I know that I can afford paying for their care when they need it.
Hope this helps :)
We didn't take insurance because of many exclusions. Buyer beware.
Have Bow Wow Meow on both my dogs from the first day I got them.
One has had near on 40k spent on it (joint disease, ACL and other stuff), the other has skin allergies and had cruciate surgery
The insurance has paid 80% without argument and has been very worthwhile in my (unlucky) situation.
Since I've had it they've added sublimits and a few other restrictions, but for now I'm keeping it. I'm. Well ahead
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Weird that people in a first world country would have first world problems.