Medical Insurance for our Cats

tdiving · Nov 11, 2014

Hi all

We would like comments from members as to their experiences and recommendations

regarding Medical Insurance for our 2 cats.

The reviews offered online seem to be very set up.

Thank you all

Tony and Kat (owned by Muse and Shadow)

abby2932 · Nov 11, 2014

There's quite a few threads pet insurance around this forum, some even recent.

But just a quick recap of my situation:

I have Embrace Pet Insurance for my 8 year old male mixed breed cat. I just signed up in June 2014. Some details about my policy:

$123 per year*
- *This year (my first year signing up)
  - All pet insurance companies increase their premiums annually due to ageing of the pet, veterinary cost inflation, etc.
$500 annual deductible (with vanishing deductible*)
- * Deductible decreases by $50 each year that I don't make a claim
80% of my total vet bill is covered*
- Choose your own vet (includes emergency vet, holistic vet, etc.)
- Covers darn near everything with the exceptions of preexisting conditions, cosmetic procedures, and a few other exclusions. You will want to read the fine print of any policy you choose so you know exactly what is not covered.
- You do have to pay the full vet bill upfront and get reimbursed by the insurance company

I have not had to make a claim yet and hopefully won't ever need to (I know, unrealistic!) If you look around the Cat Health section of this forum and read some threads, you will see how easy it is to rack up a few thousand dollars on an ailing cat. Especially if they need to be hospitalized for a weekend or longer

I am very fortunate in the sense that I am a pretty good "saver" and have a nice cushion stashed away that I could spend on a cat emergency if I need to. However it is much nicer to know that if something DID happen, I will be reimbursed and my savings won't be depleted.

nbrazil · Nov 11, 2014

Excellent answer Abby...

I have Petplan and actually had to file a claim within a month of signing up! Zero issues getting reimbursed. And that's how they work - you pay upfront and get reimbursed.

abby2932 · Nov 11, 2014

**Major typo in my previous post**

Annual premium is $223 per year

Sorry about that!

stephenq · Nov 11, 2014

tdiving said:
Hi all

We would like comments from members as to their experiences and recommendations

regarding Medical Insurance for our 2 cats.

The reviews offered online seem to be very set up.

Thank you all

Tony and Kat (owned by Muse and Shadow)

In my experience the single best website for evaluating pet insurance is www.petinsurancereview.com and that's where I found mine which is petplan. since then healthypaws has come out and they may be even better. I didn't insure my cats until about 9 years of age - i hedged my bets and saved many years of premiums and got both covered before anything big happened.

jiazzi · Nov 11, 2014

I got pet health insurance for Tyler after going through the ordeal of having to get bladders stones removed. After that, I wasn't going to assume that the asthma was the only thing that could go wrong, or the bladder stone surgery...

At the time, I purchased Pet Plan insurance after reading reviews (I think I read the reviews from the above link as well). Tyler was 7 y/o, is a purebred, all pre-existing conditions noted with a 10% co-pay and the first year's premium came out to be $330-$350 (2010).

Every year since, the premium has gone up a bit...I never used it and was actually *very close* to cutting it off this year as his premium jumped to over $1,000! About $250 of that was due to purely moving to a very expensive state (New York).

Then it happened. Tyler was diagnosed with diabetes. The cost of his diabetes treatment in the first month alone ran up to ~ $1,000. I filed a claim and waited with anticipation (knowing that if they declined the claim I would have had to raise hell). It took about a month and 1 or 2 weeks from the time I filed the claim to the point when I opened up an envelope to find a check paying for 90% of the cost (less preventive/routine check up costs). I was pleasantly surprised as I thought I would get an electronic notification about the outcome. In any case, they are now paying for the continued diabetic costs (diabetic supplies, medication, vet check ups that are directly related to his diabetes). The cost of insurance this year alone (has been 6 months or so) has already paid for itself and will soon pay for last year's insurance as the cost of diabetic supplies continue to rack up.

I'm one of those who actually had to use the insurance when I was *this close* to canceling the policy. So glad I didn't!!! However, I am sure that next year's premium increase is going to skyrocket in light of these events.

abby2932 · Nov 12, 2014

wow, your premium tripled in 4 years! I know some of it is due to the fact that you moved to New York but still, wow! What will happen if you have insurance for another 8 years or so? Will it even be affordable?

stephenq · Nov 12, 2014

jiazzi said:
I got pet health insurance for Tyler after going through the ordeal of having to get bladders stones removed. After that, I wasn't going to assume that the asthma was the only thing that could go wrong, or the bladder stone surgery...

At the time, I purchased Pet Plan insurance after reading reviews (I think I read the reviews from the above link as well). Tyler was 7 y/o, is a purebred, all pre-existing conditions noted with a 10% co-pay and the first year's premium came out to be $330-$350 (2010).

Every year since, the premium has gone up a bit...I never used it and was actually *very close* to cutting it off this year as his premium jumped to over $1,000! About $250 of that was due to purely moving to a very expensive state (New York).

Then it happened. Tyler was diagnosed with diabetes. The cost of his diabetes treatment in the first month alone ran up to ~ $1,000. I filed a claim and waited with anticipation (knowing that if they declined the claim I would have had to raise hell). It took about a month and 1 or 2 weeks from the time I filed the claim to the point when I opened up an envelope to find a check paying for 90% of the cost (less preventive/routine check up costs). I was pleasantly surprised as I thought I would get an electronic notification about the outcome. In any case, they are now paying for the continued diabetic costs (diabetic supplies, medication, vet check ups that are directly related to his diabetes). The cost of insurance this year alone (has been 6 months or so) has already paid for itself and will soon pay for last year's insurance as the cost of diabetic supplies continue to rack up.

I'm one of those who actually had to use the insurance when I was *this close* to canceling the policy. So glad I didn't!!! However, I am sure that next year's premium increase is going to skyrocket in light of these events.

I don't know why your premium went up so much. I'm also in NY and when i started my cats at about age 9 it was about $250 and its been 6 years and its ow about $400. And mine has gone up dramatically just because i made claims. Your premium shouldn't be determined by how much you use it or it isn't insurance in the true sense, they defray costs across the group. I also have Pet Plan.

abby2932 · Nov 12, 2014

StephenQ said:
I don't know why your premium went up so much. I'm also in NY and when i started my cats at about age 9 it was about $250 and its been 6 years and its ow about $400. And mine has gone up dramatically just because i made claims. Your premium shouldn't be determined by how much you use it or it isn't insurance in the true sense, they defray costs across the group. I also have Pet Plan.

This makes me feel better!

mnm · Nov 12, 2014

We have Pets Best. Here's the summary my husband gave me

You can get a policy with $200 deductible or $500 deductible. That means that you pay the deductible, then Pets Best Insurance will pay 80% of the rest of the bill and we pay 20% of the rest.

Example: The vet bill comes to $1500. We pay the first $500 (deductible), which leaves $1000 yet to be paid. Pets Best will pay $800 (80%) of the remaining balance and we would pay $200 (20%) of that.

In our situation with Minnie, the bills (including euthanasia and cremation) came to $3700, but Pets Best Insurance paid $2500 and we paid $1200.

Our premium for Mikki is $27/month with the $500 deductible.

stephenq · Nov 12, 2014

Abby2932 said:
This makes me feel better!

Yay!

jiazzi · Nov 12, 2014

StephenQ said:
I don't know why your premium went up so much. I'm also in NY and when i started my cats at about age 9 it was about $250 and its been 6 years and its ow about $400. And mine has gone up dramatically just because i made claims. Your premium shouldn't be determined by how much you use it or it isn't insurance in the true sense, they defray costs across the group. I also have Pet Plan.

My bad - now that I'm actually looking at the policy documents, the actual cost of Tyler's pet insurance this year was $832.57, not $1,000. It's still high but it wasn't $1k.

My cat had significant health issues in the past, bladder stone surgery & asthma. And again, he is a purebred cat, a ragdoll no less, and they are very prone to chronic illnesses (no matter what some breeders say - which is frankly, very irritating but that's for another post)... Wikipedia says ragdolls and another cat breed tend to have the worst genetically pre-disposed issues. :/ I'm also on the Gold Plan with a max vet fee payout of $22k and a $100 deductible. I'll look at alternate pet plans next year.

Here's what the actual historical price hikes have looked like year to year:..

Year 1 (8 y/o) = $362.94

Year 2 (9 y/o) = $402.86

Year 3 (10 y/0) = $455.34

Year 4 (11 y/o) = $569.18 then increased by $264.39 upon move to NY for a total of $832.57

tdiving · Nov 13, 2014

Thanks you all for your information regarding insurance for our cats

Tony and Kat

stephenq · Nov 13, 2014

jiazzi said:
My bad - now that I'm actually looking at the policy documents, the actual cost of Tyler's pet insurance this year was $832.57, not $1,000. It's still high but it wasn't $1k.

My cat had significant health issues in the past, bladder stone surgery & asthma. And again, he is a purebred cat, a ragdoll no less, and they are very prone to chronic illnesses (no matter what some breeders say - which is frankly, very irritating but that's for another post)... Wikipedia says ragdolls and another cat breed tend to have the worst genetically pre-disposed issues. :/ I'm also on the Gold Plan with a max vet fee payout of $22k and a $100 deductible. I'll look at alternate pet plans next year.

Here's what the actual historical price hikes have looked like year to year:..

Year 1 (8 y/o) = $362.94

Year 2 (9 y/o) = $402.86

Year 3 (10 y/0) = $455.34

Year 4 (11 y/o) = $569.18 then increased by $264.39 upon move to NY for a total of $832.57

I'm on the max plan too but a $200 deductible....

jiazzi · Nov 13, 2014

StephenQ said:
I'm on the max plan too but a $200 deductible....

Awesome.

Medical Insurance for our Cats

tdiving

TCS Member

Thread starter

abby2932

TCS Member

nbrazil

TCS Member

abby2932

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stephenq

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jiazzi

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abby2932

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stephenq

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abby2932

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mnm

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stephenq

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jiazzi

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tdiving

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Thread starter

stephenq

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jiazzi

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