Pet Health Insurance

by The K9 Guy, 05-03-17

As Veterinary care advances, the costs of providing that care are rising. With pets being a central part of many human lives, owners today are more and more willing to explore and finance therapies for ailing pets. Health insurance can make the potentially unknown cost of pet ownership more predictable. Today I wanted to share my experience with the health coverage we've had through PetPlan.

Living with multiple dogs over 30 years, generally Veterinary costs were nothing unusual or exorbitant. A Great Dane that required bi-lateral shoulder surgery as a pup, and surgery for a gastric torsion at 6 years of age, did require over $7K in unexpected Veterinary care (he was our first dog). Then about 5 years ago, another one of our dogs suffered a stroke. His care ran about $5K over 10 days in MedVet, before passing at 10 years of age. After that experience, I began exploring health coverage for our dogs.

I actually found policies that were surprisingly reasonable - about $6-700 in premiums for 2 dogs, $20K cap and 90% coverage for each, and a $500 annual deductible per condition through PetPlan. We bought policies. Over the years their rates increased gradually as each pet aged, and we also added a third dog in our home 2 years ago. By last year's renewal, however, the annual premiums were over $2K to cover 3 dogs. PetPlan's premiums had increased across the board due to a new underwriter. That $2K figure also came with a substantial decrease in coverage - $15K cap and 80% coverage. We decided to maintain our policies, but weren't feeling they were so "reasonable".

This past spring our youngest dog needed allergy testing for persistent skin issues. PetPlan denied the claim because he had been seen within a few days of adoption (and within a few days of establishing his policy) by our Vet. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do at the time. But because he hadn't been covered for 2 weeks at the time of his first visit (their waiting period), and because he had a rash at that visit, they advised they were never going to cover any skin issues for this dog during his life. On the flip side, our 12 year old dog had pneumonia last year, and they did pay the majority of costs associated with that illness.

The reason for this article is simply to share some of my experience using pet health insurance for 3 dogs over 5 years. At this point I have canceled all polices except that of our oldest. Like all insurance, there are many considerations that will vary for each individual and their pet. Here are a few of mine...

With increasing costs for lesser policies, I simply felt coverage was reaching a point of diminishing value. Your calculations may differ.
I wasn't fond of the paperwork. That will vary depending on provider and policy, but having to meet certain deductibles every year (for each pet and each condition) meant a lot of paperwork for us. I understand that's how it works, but it was a bit annoying sending in claim forms for almost every Vet visit (especially with our oldest).
Our insurer sent out a monthly newsletter with frequent training articles, often written by Veterinarians with NO training qualifications. I found a lot of that advice to be, shall we say, dubious.

I understand pet health insurance can make sense for a lot of people. I would recommend anyone researching options read the details of their policy. If we had waited 2 weeks to have our youngest dog Vetted, he would have been covered for his skin issues. But insurers are there to make money, and their actuarial knowledge will be better than any pet owner's. At the end of the day, they're not going to sell you a policy unless they believe you'll spend more (on a premium) than they will (on claims). Something to consider.

May 2020 - since writing this article - some changes. One of our dogs developed a cancer about 1 year after cancelling coverage. We've spent nearly $20K in his care over 2 years. Wish we had kept his policy, but still not sure we'll revisit new policies for future dogs.