INSURANCE

Dear Anne,
I have noticed that there's been many who have been suffering with their little ones lately. Not only trying to deal with their pain, but trying to being able to afford these skyrocketing vet bills in order to give them the best care! MeowMan just posted that he spent $700.00 (thus far) on a vet bill last nite. Isn't there any way that you can look at a group rate for the members of The Cat Site? I hope I don't sound like a presumptuous idiot, but, if there was anyway this could be done...that would be great. I checked prices and they're really not bad if you only have one cat/kitten...however; if you have a large family, you're looking into big jing (cash, gelt, do-re-mi, tender, jack, coin, mazumma, bread, dough, bankroll). I'm sure you understand...I just thought I'd bring that suggestion up again since there seems so many of us here (including yourself) as multiple cat owners.
Thanks so much for your time.
God Bless You & Yours Always,

Cat, I AM going to take out policies on my boys. I was interested before anyway, but this little emergency vet visit really zinged me good financially. It'll take me a month to get caught up again. But, Socs and Tiger will be on some kind of insurance plan VERY SOON.

Where exactly do you look into getting coverage like this? I would certainly be interested.

Dear Deb,
I hope this will help you in your search. I don't know if some of them are still in existance as I've been pretty busy working on here all day, but I did look them up to post them on here.......hope you can find one that works for you. I know that most vets take this insurance...or so my vet says so! I was very surprised the other day when I inquired. I have 6 cats though! Big money....anyway, here ya go Oh, and if you get stuck...just look under pet insurance in the web....that's all I did

http://www.premierpetinsurance.com/threeplans.asp
http://www.phapet.com
http://www.pethealthplus.com
http://www.petinsurance.com

God Bless You & Yours,

I have contaced some of these insurance companies plus others.

I'll let you know if I hear anything interesting. I'm a bit apprehensive, because I am not sure that the cheapest offer will necessarily be the best... Also, the systems they use to calculate the quota, make it difficult for me to figure out which give the best price for the best coverage.

I guess I'll just have to assume that they offer equivalent plans and see if one of them is willing to give a discount for users of this site...

Thanks Anne! Tiger's bill is about $1,000 now. Of course, price doesn't matter when it comes to my babies life, but I sure wish I had taken out a policy when this was first discussed.

Dear Anne,
Just a thought, but, do you think perhaps these insurance companies have or will ever think of trying to go with group rates. I mean, where 500+ Strong members! That would be an incredible feat to have something like this happen. Surely it wouldn't take an act of God to let these people see the profit margin here.
Like I said, just a thought
God Bless You & Yours!
Always,

I did ask one of them about group rates. They mentioned that in their site as an offer to employers I thought that with 542 (!!!! !!!) members, and probably over 2000 cats or so we sure should qualify for group rates!

I'll ask the others if and when they reply to my initial inquiry (I did tell them that this is a group of more than 500 cats owners!)

Thank you Anne for checking into this for us!!! You are the greatest!!! *hugs*

I visited 3 of the web sites. One does not serve the U.S. yet. One is temporarily down. The third showed an estimated premium of $144/year for each of my cats. There's $100 deductible and they pay 80%. That's not bad when you consider the kind of bill MeowMan just paid, but 2 cats would cost me the same as I pay in car insurance for 6 months.

Simply put: teacher's salary + careful budgeting =
daily occurance

I am glad to have the information, as it is something I will consider.

Thanks for the legwork, Anne.

Dear Anne,
Thanks so much for looking into that! I'm sure one of would pick us up...wouldn't that be wonderful! That's really great that you took the time to check into that; I know I don't speak for myself when I say that!
Thanks Again for caring so much.
God Bless You & Yours,
Always,

Okay, I got a first reply from http://www.BluePaw.com

They can give us group rates only if we're "an established business and in business for more than the purpose of purchasing insurance or an association with a board, by laws, membership fees". So I kinda have a feeling this is not the case... But they are willing to discuss a special 5% discount (subject to state approval - whatever that is).

So please have a look at their site and tell me what you think.

I'll let you know when I get more replies.

Anne, that BluePaw is available only in Oregan from what I can tell. But, I am DEFINANTLY interested in getting insurance for the kids.

If I may make a suggestion: Why not offer a link to the insurance company on the site and then tell them that if members of thecatsite inform them were from the site and use this specific link, qwe'll get a, say, 5% discount and 2% for each additional cat on the same policy.

It was a thought.

You know, I have been looking at these sites too. As much as I would like to have coverage for the cats in case of an emergency I cant pay 1600 a year. I didnt even spend that in vet bills or vaccinations for the babies last year. I guess I am just going to have to deal with each situation as it comes. It sure is nice though for people with only a few cats!!

I offered them advertising space in return for a discount. They're looking into it.

You know, I was thinkingm if any of you have any contacts in the pet insurance business, maybe you can tell them about what we're looking for and see if they're willing to do something with this. I will of course provide the links from the site and will even give them free ads for that.

Sandie, I guess you shouldn't get any pet insurance I'm sure that the discount you get where you work is much better than that