Pet Insurance - other people's thoughts?

Each time my cats have needed insurance, the popular insurers did not cover the treatment or most recently said they do not cover cats over 10 yrs old.
They did offer wellness plan ( 10 yrs or older) that paid for annual visits, a routine check up, blood test, and certain preventive items such as flea control or vaccinations. It did not allow you to sign up on the website if your pet was over 10 yrs old. I never had any major problems the first 10 yrs, so glad I didn't waste my money on insurance.

Kittens Mom said:

Mook had her dental today. All good ! Clean and polish and sealed.
I took the time there to make sure a paper copy of their Embrace claim forms were in their files.

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I was SO surprised how easy it was to submit the claims - the vet's office does it for me! So far, just had a claim submitted for Sara. Wasn't a big reimbursement since she had wellness only, but still, it was nice to get that check.

jacqueline74 said:

Each time my cats have needed insurance, the popular insurers did not cover the treatment or most recently said they do not cover cats over 10 yrs old.
They did offer wellness plan ( 10 yrs or older) that paid for annual visits, a routine check up, blood test, and certain preventive items such as flea control or vaccinations. It did not allow you to sign up on the website if your pet was over 10 yrs old. I never had any major problems the first 10 yrs, so glad I didn't waste my money on insurance.

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I have not seen a whole lot actually that had limits on age, especially as young as 10. I've seen some say they won't insure anyone over 14, but that was not even the majority. I didn't go with any that had cut-offs on age, especially ones that would cut you off the moment you cat is past a certain age (that's bogus to me).

Donutte said:

Have you ever had a feeling about any of your young cats that they're gonna have issues later in life that you have trouble explaining? I feel that way about Oliver. Little guy is the one that got the herpes virus from his mom and had an eye infection when I got him. He has an occasional cough that worries me for the future. It doesn't happen THAT often, but still, just have a feeling about this one.

I could be just paranoid too. Actually, I'd bet on it.

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Of our two original cats, we always thought for some reason that felix would live longer than simon, maybe because simon had mild IBD, but it went the other way and felix died first.

Donutte said:

I actually WOULD submit all the little claims, as they still go against your deductible. Granted, it would take a lot to get to $1,000, but god forbid your baby needs a bit more care than you expected, at least the smaller claims help chip away at the deductible.

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The companies ive dealt with only allow reimbursable claims to count towards the deductible.  Otherwise you could actually satisfy your deductible very easily with any claim regardless of whether they will pay you for it.

StephenQ said:

The companies ive dealt with only allow reimbursable claims to count towards the deductible.  Otherwise you could actually satisfy your deductible very easily with any claim regardless of whether they will pay you for it.

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I guess that's a good point though, it depends on the plan. In my case, there are some things not reimbursable (like the waste disposal fee). My plan in percentage based, and they cover wellness and most injury/illness, so in my case it would behoove me to submit all claims, then let them figure out what out of the total is reimbursable. Sara's and Maple's don't have a deductible as it's wellness only, so I only submit certain ones with them.

Kittens Mom said:

Mook had her dental today. All good ! Clean and polish and sealed.
I took the time there to make sure a paper copy of their Embrace claim forms were in their files.

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I'm so glad to hear that Mook did well with her dental! I'll bet that was a huge relief to get it done and over with.

I  have insurance for my 3 cats and got it when I first got them all as kittens. It's with Nationwide, major medical plan - I think it's about $215 per year per cat. I haven't made a claim yet, but do have a claim to submit now for one of them who was just diagnosed with tooth resorption and had to have 5 teeth extracted, which was pretty costly.

Katsa said:

I  have insurance for my 3 cats and got it when I first got them all as kittens. It's with Nationwide, major medical plan - I think it's about $215 per year per cat. I haven't made a claim yet, but do have a claim to submit now for one of them who was just diagnosed with tooth resorption and had to have 5 teeth extracted, which was pretty costly.

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That's what I have. Do you have the comprehensive (w/ wellness), or just injury/illness? I'm guessing the latter going by what you pay. Dentals were a big part of the reason I decided to get insurance, as that is potentially a major factor with chronic kidney disease.

Donutte said:

That's what I have. Do you have the comprehensive (w/ wellness), or just injury/illness? I'm guessing the latter going by what you pay. Dentals were a big part of the reason I decided to get insurance, as that is potentially a major factor with chronic kidney disease.

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I have the major medical plan, which doesn't include wellness checks. Yeah, dental problems (even cleaning) are really expensive - my cat's cleaning and extractions cost about $1300.

Hey, I want to reopen this conversation.

We have 4 cats on 24PetWatch.

The oldest is Lillianna Underfoot at 5 years.

They have all been on 24PetWatch since we got them.

A couple of years ago we had an incident with Lilly and 24PetWatch was great.

This year not so much.

I tried to file a claim (struvite crystals) in April.

Run around after run around on the forms after waiting over a month to respond.

On hold for hours, no call backs, re-submitting the forms over and over again.

Closing the case with no feedback, etc.

I did a search and found bunches of "They were great until 2016" reviews.

Their website says they are not offering new policies, they will refer you to their partner.

They cheerfully processed my credit card update and want to take my money when my renewal is up in a week or so...

S0 - I started looking at other insurance, knowing that I will probably not collect on this episode.

I started looking with http://www.consumersadvocate.org 

Holy Cow, for anything with a decent deductible and any kind of coverage they want $35-45 a month.

For 4 cats that adds up. 

I don't want maintenance coverage, but I want something more than catastrophic.

Sure a big problem can be thousands of dollars, but if I am paying over a thousand dollars a year the benefit is a trade off.

Especially if there is no maintenance and no major problems for a few years.

Washington state if that makes a difference.

Does anyone have suggestions?

I think I should probably not renew with 24PetWatch but I like having insurance.

Are there any other sources I should check?

Laureen

I have PetPlan and it is $100 a year for each cat with a $250 deductible.

KKoerner said:

I have PetPlan and it is $100 a year for each cat with a $250 deductible.

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Wow, how did you manage that? That's less than $10 a month, pretty good. Which plan are you on? Is it just for accidents)

I'm going to get insurance for my new dog. Because he's young and doesn't have any pre-existing conditions. It will be about $35 a month with the plan I'm considering (Healthy Paws, 80%, $250 deductible).

Willowy said:

Wow, how did you manage that? That's less than $10 a month, pretty good. Which plan are you on? Is it just for accidents)

I'm going to get insurance for my new dog. Because he's young and doesn't have any pre-existing conditions. It will be about $35 a month with the plan I'm considering (Healthy Paws, 80%, $250 deductible).

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Well, that's with a 15% total discount. shelter/vet profession discount and online discount. And it was also paying the total premium at once vs monthly. They also have a quarterly option. Less yotal payments=even more discount. I think if i had done quarterly it woupd have been $24 more (total between the two cats) and i dont know the monthly cost...maybe $12 per month for each cat. But that is a guess. The online discount is a 10% discount I think so you could still get close without the vet profession discount. I also was insuring a 3 month old and a 1 year old. So young animals.

PetPlan covers accidents and diseases. No wellness coverage. Only exclusion is pre-existing conditions but congenital diseases that haven't shown any symptoms in your animal will still be covered as normal.

Dogs are more expensive than cats are.
Mine is $250 deductible, 80% coverage, $10,000 limit. So far they have been easy to work with and I've already been reimbursed enough to cover both cat's premiums plus a little so it was a good bet this year! LOL

They have plans that have a much higher limit, $0 deductible, and 100% coverage which are obviously more costly....though this year I think it still would have worked out in my favor to have done that....

redcat57 said:

 
Laureen

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Insurance companies are reviewed here, that's how i found my plan.  http://www.petinsurancereview.com/  and the specific reviews here http://www.petinsurancereview.com/reviewStart.asp

Note 24hourPetWatch  has the WORST review of all of them.

Thanks!!

The comparison chart is awesome.

It looks like there are plans that are affordable.

I was worried that I would not be able to find one.

After almost an hour live chatting with a 24Pet rep I cancelled my policies.

They repeated the same thing over and over, insisting they didn't get the records, and if I resubmit the entire claim *again* they assure me it would be paid, etc.

I am aware that the crystals are now a preexisting condition but that is the way it goes.

If they are never going to pay on any claims the point is moot.

Thanks for the help!!

I don't have insurance because it's a disgrace here in Spain, it costs a fortune for very poor coverage. Vet care is relatively cheap, however. I'm trying to build up a pot just for the kitties instead, it makes more sense to me.

If anything massive was to happen I'd have to borrow off my parents, thankfully they're cat people too.