Pet Insurance--raise deductible or go without?

crazy4strays

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Since adopting my 3rd cat, I'm revisiting the pet insurance question.

My 4 year old cat is insured. It costs me $14.52 for 80% reimbursement, with $300 annual deductible.

My 16ish year old cat is not insured. At this age, he'd only be eligible for an accident only policy with the company anyway, no illnesses covered.

I was looking at adding my new kitten to our policy and it raises the monthly amount to almost $28. With that mentioned, my husband commented that we should just start a pet savings account and forgo insurance.

I'm contemplating raising the deductible, though. A $700 vet bill wouldn't kill us. What I'm worried about is bills in the multi thousands from the cat getting mauled by a raccoon or hit by a car. (My 4 year old cat is an escape artist unfortunately)

If I raised the deductible to $1,000.00, it would be under $10 to cover both cats. If I raised it to $750, it would be about $13ish per month.

What would you do? 
 

red top rescue

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I agree with your husband.  Insurance companies are in it to make money, not to take care of your needs.  The whole concept of having a deductible and also not covering an OLD cat is part of that, and you cannot count on them covering everything either, as they can nit pick and make collecting quite difficult.  Not all of them do, but I had one that did and will never have a cat insurance policy again.  Yes, I had about $1500 of bills for emergency surgery, but with the help of friends and a YouCaring appeal, it got paid.  (My vet did not require pre-payment as I have been with them for 14 years.)  Your insurance is covering what Medicare covers.   With three cats, it would be much wiser to put money in your own medical savings account.  Start with putting in the deductibles and you will have a good pad in case of accidents.  You could also get one of those medical credit cards and just hold it in case of any huge accidents.
 
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crazy4strays

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Wow, can I ask what the medical condition was for the surgery and why they fought against covering it?

Thanks for your input.
 

lavishsqualor

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I totally agree with Red Top on this.  I have a friend who has sold State Farm Insurance for years and I asked her to look over several pet policies and she told me that they were all rubbish.  Each month I contribute $50 to a "ER Cat Fund" instead. The pet policies today just aren't worth it, in my own personal opinion.
 
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crazy4strays

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I think that I will make a dedicated checking account just for pet expenses and contribute $50 per month. The benefit of that is that I can also use it for annual exams and dental cleaning.

In the event of an accident exceeding that, we could use our general household emergency fund. If it's beyond that, we could get CareCredit since we both have excellent credit. 
 

lavishsqualor

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That's what I do, Crazy4Strays.  I really do hope that someday soon there's a decent pet insurance policy.  It would sure offer a lot of custodians greater peace of mind.  By the way, your cats sure are lucky to have you!
 
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crazy4strays

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Aww, thanks! 
 

We follow a written budget every month and we already have categories for other irregular expenses like propane fills and bi-yearly car insurance premiums. I'll just make a category for "Pet Sinking Fund" and slap the money in the extra checking account each month. For routine stuff like dental and check ups and in the event that anything happened, I could just use the debit card to pay the vet directly from that account. And when it's my own money I don't have to argue with a company over what they will or won't cover. 

As disastrous as major accidents are, they are fairly rare and that's why pet insurance companies make money. 

As far as illnesses, I feed my 3 male cats canned food to lower their risk of urinary problems. I brush their teeth and do dental cleanings as needed. I do vaccinate them, but sparingly. I quit FelV/FIV vaccinations after surmising that the risk of sarcomas was higher than the risk of FelV/FIV. I do FVRCP vaccines only every 3 years and do PureVax rabies shots yearly. 

As far as major illnesses like cancer, I would probably go on a palliative care basis and try holistic treatments or do whatever I could to improve the quality of the cat's remaining life. I don't think that I would even opt for chemotherapy for myself, let alone my cats. 

My elderly cat has chronic renal failure and so far, everything's been financially fine. The bloodwork and urinalysis for his diagnosis wasn't that expensive. 

He eats regular canned food and still has a decent quality of life. If needed, I'll get the vet to teach me how to administer sub-q fluids.
 

artiemom

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I will not go into my saga with pet insurance.. some companies are really nasty, especially when you need the insurance the most. 

They try to find anything, any iota that will become a 'pre-existing' condition, in order to disallow coverage. They will be nice about it, but they will ask your Vet for all your animal's records. They have 'trained' people who are 'trained' to find any loophole not to pay for a claim.. 

Insurance may be ok in the beginning, but, come some chronic condition, then they are useless. They will find some way to refuse coverage stating, something to the effect; there were xxxxx conditions which the animal was treated before coverage was effective, and somehow misconstrue it to mean that this was associated with a pre-existing condition, meaning that pre-existing condition is what your cat has, even though it was not diagnosed at that time....... it is mind boggling..  and the depths they go through for PR is unbelievable yes, some representatives cruise the cat forums looking for ways to market themselves or to alleviate any bad press...... 

I had a nightmare with them.. I will not go into detail.. or names.. but trust me.. you are better off  saving some money of your own...

That way you will be able to cover everything....and not have any hassles...
 
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crazy4strays

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I called and cancelled my pet insurance policy. I will be heading to town to start a dedicated checking account for veterinary expenses soon.
 

Willowy

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Generally, yes, insurance companies make profits by charging more in premiums than they pay out. But it can be useful in an emergency.

I will point out thst $28 a month is only $336 a year. . .and one emergency vet visit will certainly cost more than that. I don't know how much you were planning to put in the dedicated cat account per month but that probably won't be enough to cover emergencies.
 
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greypaws

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No one can run any business and stay in business unless they make a profit. Pet insurance can be a life saver for those with limited incomes when a true emergency could possibly have the animal PTS as there legitimately aren't funds available to pay for the treatment/surgery. Care credit is no good if someone doesn't have the funds available to make the payments. All that said, for anyone considering pet insurance look into Healthy Paws. At this point they are one of the best companies as far as covering what they say they will. No ins co will pay for routine stuff, read the fine print before signing up and you won't be disappointed.
 
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crazy4strays

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The thing is, with pet insurance a person still has to put a large sum of money towards the vet bills, with the co-pay and deductible.
 

Primula

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I think pet insurance is a good idea if you have only one cat. We have 2 inside & 3 outside so the cost would be prohibitive.
 

Willowy

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The thing is, with pet insurance a person still has to put a large sum of money towards the vet bills, with the co-pay and deductible.
Yes, but a good insurance company will cover some of it. So that the owner can afford more/better treatment than they normally would. You do have to pay up front (some vets may let you carry a balance but most won't), so the owner needs to have a credit card or some cash available, but the insurance company will reimburse a certain percentage of it
 

mom of 2 cats

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I have Nationwide which used to be VIP Pet Insurance  , I have the wellness plan for Milo and Dakota  , haven't used it yet because I just signed up a week ago   but I will try it and see how it goes 
 

abby2932

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I guess it's too late now since you already cancelled your policy but Embrace offers a Healthy Pet deductible reduction every year if you don't make a claim. I also have Embrace and my deductible is set to $1,000 for both of my cats. Since I've had it for 3 years now, my deductible is down to $850  if I had to make a claim this year. My premium this year for both cats was around $422. So that's about $35 per month for 2 cats. I would have no problem coming up with a few grand in an emergency but it's nice to know that I would get 80%  of the cost back if I had to file a claim. Like you, I'm not worried about an illness that may cost a few hundred dollars but in the event that one of my cats develops something serious that adds up to 5 or 10  grand over a couple of years, the insurance is a nice peace of mind and relatively low cost.

So many people think negatively about insurance companies not paying out when you need it but honestly, if you've read the Terms and Conditions front to back and know what they cover and what they don't cover there are absolutely no surprises. Embrace does not cover incurable Pre-existing conditions, period. They do cover CURABLE preexisting conditions (diarrhea, vomiting, rash, etc) if, and only if your pet is symptom free for over 12 months. Get a Medical History Review in the beginning of your policy and they will detail and explain what your pet may not be covered for, if anything. It's really that easy.

I would not consider being without pet insurance since I am "one of those" that would sell a kidney to treat my cat if needed. Sure, it could be a huge waste of money to shell out anywhere between $10-$60 a month on insurance for a cat over a roughly 20 year period and never have to use it IF you're one of the lucky ones whose cat never develops a chronic illness or never gets into a major accident. But I'd rather be the person that wasted that small monthly fee than the alternate scenario.
 
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crazy4strays

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This post was about 18 months ago. We were working a plan to revamp our finances and have gotten to the other side now. We're completely debt free and have a very large amount of savings now.

Cancelling the insurance and just continuing to work on our finances was definitely the right answer for us.
 
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