This post is from staff writer Sierra Black. Sierra writes about frugality, sustainable living, and getting her kids to eat kale at Childwild.com.
My cat, Monster, died two weeks ago after a struggle with cancer. Monster followed me home one day when I was 17; he was with me through every heartbreak, every move, job, boyfriend, and roommate. I’m grateful for the fifteen years we had together, but I miss him. I’ll miss him always, I suspect.
Three little monsters…
Monster’s death left me with a tough decision: Should my girls get kittens for Christmas? We’d been thinking of getting the kids kittens for awhile, but held off because Monster was old and frail. I didn’t want a pair of kittens to terrorize him. While it felt too soon to me to get new cats, my older daughter asked very gently if she could get a cat of her own “a few weeks after Monster died”.
When my other daughter’s preschool held a holiday pet adoption & craft fair, the deal was clinched. We came home with two kittens.
The kittens came with a brochure for pet insurance. I’ve never had pet insurance, and I wondered if a policy might be worthwhile, especially for young cats who need extra care and appointments, as well as vaccines.
Veterinary care gets expensive fast. I tapped out my modest $1,000 emergency fund paying for Monster’s end-of-life care and cremation costs. I have never been so grateful for my new financial skills as I was when I was able to write that check without worrying about where the money would come from.
Between paying for my elderly cat’s illness and adopting two kittens, vet bills have been on my mind a lot. So I looked into my pet insurance options. I decided to “self-insure” my pets by putting more money into my emergency fund, instead of buying an insurance policy to cover their medical costs. Here’s why:
- Pet insurance costs about $1 a day. That’s $365 a year. My cat’s medical care typically costs about $300 a year. I can readily save that money myself.
- Routine care isn’t covered. While an accident or serious illness could suddenly befall my cat, routine care is the bulk of expenses I have ever paid for a cat. It’s true that a sudden illness could escalate those costs dramatically. This just happened to Monster as he was dying. After 15 years of cat tending, though, I have a decent sense of how much it costs on a day-to-day basis, and how common these expensive accidents or illnesses really are.
- Money in my emergency fund is more flexible. I can use those dollars to pay for a surprise vet bill or a blown radiator on my car or a washing machine repair. The money isn’t dedicated to a particular cause, it’s available for whatever emergency life throws my way.
Of course, emergencies can pile up, making the flexibility of emergency funds a moot point. That’s a risk of going it alone. For example, shortly after my cat died, I developed a problem with my hands that needed intensive medical care.
For an insurance policy to seem worthwhile to me, it needs to be cheap, easy to use, and cover routine expenses. AAA is a great deal for me, for example, because my annual membership costs about what one service call does, and driving a used car I use it every year. If they didn’t cover routine roadside incidents like flat tires, I’d drop it because that’s the bulk of what I use them for.
It’s almost always better to self-insure your stuff (and your pets) than to buy a warranty or insurance policy. The two big exceptions in my life are home and health insurance. I can’t reasonably squirrel away the cash to replace my home, and a catastrophic health event can set me back hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Health insurance also covers my routine care. I don’t get my money’s worth out of my health insurance every year, but I always have my care covered. My insurance premiums are the only significant cost I pay for health care. They pay for 5 physicals, any number of sick care appointments, and the various specialists my family members see.
Pet insurance would only cover major medical incidents. Cats don’t, in my experience, have as many of those as people. In 15 years I’ve paid for one surgery and two illnesses with my cats. That doesn’t suggest a lot of use for my pet insurance policy. If I’d paid insurance premiums all those years, I’d have paid over $4500. The cost of major medical bills has actually been less than half that.
Any insurance or warranty program works because most of its customers pay more in premiums than they consume in services. That’s how an insurance company makes money. Before giving them some of yours, think very carefully about what kind of customer you are. Will you be paying more in premiums than you get in service? Or the other way around? Of course it’s impossible to know what the future will bring, but here are some good questions to ask yourself:
- Can I save this money myself? Be honest. Do you have the income and the discipline to save for an emergency. You want the answer to be yes, but wishing doesn’t always make things happen. If you don’t have the savings or a good way to build them, start working on developing those skills. Some things you just can’t self-insure, but many you can if you’re diligent.
- What kind of consumer are you? For example, an outdoor cat is going to be more prone to accident or illness than an indoor cat. That might alter the equation on whether or not pet insurance is worthwhile to you.
Whatever you decide, I hope you never have to use your insurance or emergency fund to pay for a sick or injured animal. May all of your pets live long, healthy, happy lives.
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Since I have never had a pet myself, I think I am more callous in my response.
Animals are great for companianship and love, but they aren’t human. If they need brain surgery, I don’t think it should be done. For those that pay $5,000+ dollars to “save” their pets for just a few more days – I think they’re crazy.
For this reason, I don’t think pet insurance is needed. If something goes seriously wrong with your pet, you’ll just have to let them go rather than pay the big bucks.
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Yikes! You are right, you have obviously never had a pet!
I just looked into this for my two dogs and there was an option to add routine care. I am not sure what company you looked into, or maybe cats are different than dogs in coverage, but we got a quote from VPI.
My vet summed it up well though- people that can afford pet insurance can usually afford their vet bills. The people that really need it can’t afford or think the monthly costs are too high. So it is a toss up, although I’m sure if my dog got really sick it would be worth it. We haven’t made our decision yet.
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All I’ll say is that in the 4 years I have had a dog, 2 of those years I have dramatically saved a ton of money with pet insurance. The other 2 years I came out about even.
If you think a reasonable expectation of vet bills for a dog (not a cat) is $300 a year…you better not get a dog.
Pet insurance is 100% worth the cost in the first 8 years of a large dog’s life. The type of pet matters. Not sure it would be worth it for a cat.
Plus, most pet insurance DOES cover routine care these days (tho not completely)
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I’m sorry to hear about Monster
I’ve been thinking of getting a cat, but I’m not going to until I have room in my emergency fund for any unexpected expenses. I’ve heard mixed reviews about pet insurance so this post really helped!
One thing my parents have always done is decide ahead of time how far they will go to help their dogs. (In other words, to think about costs and quality of life for their animals.) It’s a very difficult topic, but it does help with financial planning and that awful step of knowing when to say good bye.
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Sierra, I’m so sorry to hear you cat died. I have a few cats and have thought about getting the insurance, but for an indoor cat the numbers just don’t add up. From past experience I know that if something (no pun intended) catastrophic were to happen, I would have to put the cat down. A few times growing up our outdoor cats had something awful happen and even after hundreds of dollars spent on trying to save them they died anyway.
What I decided to do was to put aside a fund in ING just for emergency care and I add $25/month to it. I also put aside money each month for food/litter/flea medicine, etc. and what is leftover gets funneled to the emergency fund. So far it has worked out well. I wish I had the money to do that for my own health care!
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sorry to hear about Monster and enjoy the new kittens.
One perspective on insuring “routine” care/claims – it costs an insurance company money to administer a claim, so that even if all of the money that you paid as premium was dedicated to paying your claims in a year, you’d still lose about 20% due to the expenses of paying your claims.
This is why insurance tends to work better for catastrophic events (as you point out)
Peter
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Do you think maybe you are over-insured when it comes to health insurance? If you aren’t getting your money’s worth, why not switch to catastrophic care where you can save in advance and pay in full for routine visits like physicals and sick care appointments?
Insurers make very little of their money from people not using up all the benefits they pay for. They make most of their money charging a large group of people for protection against unlikely events. You (and others) coming out a few hundred (or even thousand) dollars ahead or behind on insurance premiums isn’t making or breaking the bills for these guys.
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I’ve recently decided to drop our pet insurance. Our premiums for two dogs was about $60/month (that included the “routine” care for our new puppy which would be going away, but other premium increases would put us up near that number).
Instead, I’m socking away 100/month into an ING savings account. It just doesn’t make sense otherwise for me. First off, the filing of claims is ancient. You have to fax forms and all dealings are after the fact. This alone puts my unorganized self at a disadvantage. However, the thing that really gets me are the new plans and the percentage of coverage. Now VPI is moving towards tiered deductibles (100, 250, 500) with premiums based upon those upfront payments. Yes, they now pay a larger percentage and have a wider range of coverage, but it still does not seem to justify my costs.
I figure after two years of savings, I’ll have a solid $2400 in the pup-fund. After this point, I can continue to save or use the money for expenses as they come and then begin rebuilding the fund. Until that point, I have our emergency fund to use so that we don’t load down ourselves with debt in the case of emergency.
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Sierra, I am very sorry for your loss of Monster. I agree with you that pet insurance is not worth it. Primarily because the policy cedes control of whether or not to treat during an emergency to your insurance company. You need to contact them first, and have them talk with your vet, and then THEY DECIDE whether or not they’ll approve the procedure. So all that premium money and you may end up having to pay for expenses out of pocket anyway. No thank you.
I’m not one to endorse credit cards, but there is a GE product called Care Credit that is for human and pet health expenses only, and it is low-interest or interest free for a certain period after a big expenditure (varies by amount). I use it when I have a vet bill I can’t cover with cash or don’t want to raid savings for.
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Re: 1 & 2
I’ve been a pet owner my whole life, cats and/or dogs, mostly cats. But I’m pretty much with #1 poster. I cannot imagine spending thousands of dollars should one of my cats develop a major issue. It may seem callous but, to me, it’s just practical. For people, yes. For cats, no. I also haven’t felt any need to get pet insurance. I just budget for typical cat vet care.
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A long time ago, I bought pet insurance in the US and it definitely was NOT worth it. My dog developed a urinary tract infection and I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and at the end of the day I got reimbursed $30. I dropped that insurance.
I bought pet insurance when I moved to the UK. It definitely was worth it! They paid the full limit of 4000 GBP and I paid the remainder 1500 GBP. (I am one of those people who will pay what it takes as long as the vets think it will result in a quality longer life – but no chemotherapy, dialysis, etc.) The insurance company paid the full amount readily and stopped my premium payments after my dog’s death without me having to make that request.
Now I am back in the US and have a new dog and new pet insurance. I am ambivalent about the value of buying pet insurance because my US insurance experience was so bad and my UK insurance experience was so good. I hope the US pet insurance has improved.
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“For an insurance policy to seem worthwhile to me, it needs to be cheap, easy to use, and cover routine expenses.”
Any insurance policy that covers routine (i.e. regular) expenses is not going to be cheap. That’s not the point of insurance.
You well understand this point when you talk about home insurance replacing your potentially burned-down house; while at the same time you don’t presumably expect it to replace your worn-out water heater or pay for gutter cleaning.
And yet when we get into discussions about HEALTH insurance for people, and apparently pets, we somehow expect that insurance ought to cover our expected expenses, such as your physicals.
I’m sorry about your cat. I know how difficult it can be to lose a pet. I also agree with the first poster–insurance ought to be for unexpected and catastrophic expenses that still need to be paid for. If my child needs expensive cancer treatments that run hundreds of thousands of dollars, I need insurance. If my dog needs it, we’ll have to say our farewells.
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Sierra, I recently lost my dog to cancer and I truly understand and feel your loss.
I also have a dachshund (known for back problems) that I decided to insure to be on the safe side. A few months into the insurance she herniated a disc in her back… guess what, not covered. So not only did I pay for the $350+ a year insurance, I paid for all the vet bills myself. I know some people are very happy with their pet insurance but for me it ended up being another expense on top of an expensive treatment. They also had a cap on routine expenses that usually ended up stopping payments at about the amount you paid into the insurance, which seemed more like a savings account for people who were bad at savings than an insurance policy to me.
I currently have a savings plan for vet expenses and I put about $350 per dog per year and I am confident that anything serious will be covered with that money.
As for end of life care, it is a difficult thing to experience with a pet. Having enough money to treat them is one less thing to have to worry about when you need to focus on the hard decisions. I am sorry for your loss.
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I’m a pet lover and consider our dog part of the family. If he needed X-amount of dollars for surgery, we would surely pay for it.
That said, I guess it would have to depend on whether the surgery would by days or years to his life. We surely would not want him to suffer.
Growing up, we usually had 4 dogs. If we had insurance: $365 a year, per dog, average life say.. 12= $17,520. I know we have never spent anywhere near that number.
So, my take on pet insurance, I don’t think it’s worth it. Like others have said, you can just setup an e-fund for pet emergencies. Don’t forget, you also get interest on you e-fund, rather than paying out each month for insurance.
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dmm219 – I disagree. Pet Insurance is worth it, but only for some breeds/types of dogs.
I bought it because I was also given a quote to include general checkups. However, because it is a private insurance, they can exclude things. My 1.5 year old Ridgeback mix (a rescue) tore his cruciate (ACL) and also has a dysplasia-like problem in his front paw. Neither of those are covered by pet insurance for any dog over 30 lbs, or any dog younger than 3 because they are more likely to have those problems.
LifeandMyFinances – These surgeries (which we are doing soon) have been quoted at $4,000. I am lucky that I have that money saved, but I don’t have children. Kramer is my “son.” And this money will give me 8 more years with him, not just a few days. He is my priority and in the past year has already been through the world with me. He deserves the best life possible.
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My only comment is that you should rescue these new kittens, if you decide to get them. Please don’t buy. There are millions of cats sitting in shelters across the country waiting for homes- there are even kittens!
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Sorry for your loss. My parents just lost their 17 year old dog over Christmas. She’s being frozen at the pet shelter for a Spring burial.
I would have liked to see more information about different pet health insurance plans, not just the one that sends a flyer with a specific fair. Maybe some information on the average pet insurance plan, or information on ranges of costs for different breeds.
Obviously the cost of routine care would mean a higher insurance premium. That may or may not be worth it (usually it is worth it if the insurance company is able to use its buying power to negotiate lower rates with providers). Pre-paying routine care really isn’t the point of insurance (as previous posters have pointed out) unless it encourages preventative care thus avoiding catastrophic care.
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I did the analysis when I had two young dogs and came to the same conclusion: better to just put the premium in the bank.
FWIW, I found over the course of my dogs’ long lives that they were very expensive when they were young (lots of injuries from playing too hard, plus the fees for spaying) and again in old age (tests to check for cancer, meds). In middle age, from age 3 to 10 +/- medical costs consisted primarily of routine vet visits.
I’m sorry for your loss, but wish your family much happiness with your new friends.
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I’m in the UK, my family has 2 cats and they are both insured. Coco, our older cat, has had 2 major operations- she chipped her elbow joint and had it replaced with a metal pin, then a couple of years later a ligament in her back leg snapped and was replaced by a synthetic one. This operations would have cost us around £5000 each if not for insurance. She had both of them before she was 10 and she’s now 15 and still healthy, fairly active and a happy cat.
If pet insurance in the USA is anything like your health insurance, I wouldn’t bother with it, but ours has been very good. They give us money towards the cats’ regular vaccinations and cover a wide range of tests too.
Some people don’t seem to see the gravity of owning a pet, it’s not a piece of furniture you can get rid of whenever you fancy, it’s a responsibility.
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“My vet summed it up well though- people that can afford pet insurance can usually afford their vet bills.” This is pretty much how I feel. For me, for what pet insurance covers, it’s just not really worth the cost. BUT, it is worth noting, I have a sturdy, middle-aged, healthy dog who really does not need much of anything besides vaccines, and I’m pretty capable with dogs so I do a lot of her care at home, like cleaning teeth, clipping nails, etc.
I put ~$50 a month into a savings account instead. Then I can use that money for other pet-related expenses, like food, toys, travel expenses, and so on. It works out pretty well.
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I have 3 dogs. I declined pet insurance but know that I’d pay thousands if my doberman needed something to save her life (or quality of life) that was likely to succeed. A friend of mine was single, no kids and had a good job. His boxer, who was pretty much his life, was out playing frisbee and came down wrong on his ankle breaking it. It wasn’t life threatening and amputation was probably a less costly option. He opted to have pins put in the ankle at the cost of over $3,0000. I know I’d probably do the same even though I’d have to charge it. Due to the sports my dog is involved in amputation wouldn’t be an option. I’m not sure if pet insurance companies charge more for dogs involved in certain performance sports but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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I agree with dmm219 – it’s worth it more for dogs than cats.
When things go wrong with dogs, they’re expensive to fix – and not just life-or-death stuff like a brain tumour, but otherwise healthy dogs (particularly breeds) can develop wonky knees or hips that need expensive operations. A friend’s 2 year old dog developed a bad knee – if he hadn’t had insurance, it would have cost him £2000+.
Our pet insurance also has a third party element – in case the dog hurts anyone else or causes damage to anything expensive.
We’ve lost 2 cats in the last 18 months – one about 9 years old, the other 12. Both went quickly (apparently cats often keep quiet about serious illnesses, so we don’t find out until it’s too late) and were inoperable – insurance wouldn’t have helped in either case. Even if an operation had been a possibility, chances are it would have just postponed the inevitable — self-insuring meant we could choose whether to give the money to an animal shelter in their memory or whether to risk it. We would have chosen the former.
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I work for a pet insurance company, though not in the US. Here’s what I’ve seen:
- shop around. Policies vary WIDELY between different companies. And if you get the cheapest policy, it won’t pay out much
- dogs need insurance much more than cats
- the more pets you have insured, the less you need insurance. If you’re paying premiums for lots of pets, statistically, they probably won’t all get sick, and that’s a lot of money towards your emergency fund.
- lots of companies do cover routine health, but if you never get the routine care done it’s not worth the extra premiums (cats are hardly ever using the routine to their full advantage)
- if you have enough of an emergency fund to spend $5000 or so, if you really had too, you don’t need insurance
- we NEVER cover pre-existing conditions or those within the waiting period. If your pet is already sick or fairly old, it’s probably not worth it. If it only has a minor illness or two, then coverage for future unrelated incidents may be useful
- read the Terms and Conditions thoroughly upon receipt of them.
- as stated, we need premiums to be higher than the claims paid, in order to stay in business. So breaking even shouldn’t be a concern, since premiums are based on the average client paying more than we pay them. So, it’s more an issue of whether you could afford an unexpected accident or serious illness on your own.
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I have often pondered whether to get pet insurance. We have two older dogs and insuring them would be very expensive, and I also am not of the mind that expensive, invasive treatments to prolong their lives for a short time, if it came to that, would be the humane thing to do. I’ll leave aside whether it’s appropriate to spend a lot of money on end of life care, as that’s a very personal decision that no one can make for another person.
We would have benefited greatly from our youngest dog having insurance, however. A couple of years ago, she needed surgery for a torn ACL – in two legs! This required two separate surgeries and cost a total of over $5,000. We never considered not doing the surgery, because she was in a lot of constant pain, and also was only about 4 years old at the time, so she had a long life ahead of her. It would have been unbelievably cruel to leave her legs untreated.
This same dog is mischevious enough to have, not once but twice, gotten into prescription medication. The first time it happened, several hours had elapsed and in addition to being rushed to the emergency vet, she had to spend 2 nights in the hospital.
I don’t know that the cost of routine care justifies pet insurance, though as I said, I’m still pondering it. But in the case of our little stinker Alaska, it would have been the right decision.
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I’ll add that I don’t think someone who does not have pets can really opine on this subject. Pets are not people, but they are family. I realize it’s not the same as having a child, but neither is it the same as a nonliving thing. Pet owners treat their pets as family and take care of their needs, and this is a significant priority that has its own place in the family budget.
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I lost a dog a couple of years ago, it may seem excessive, but over her lifetime her vet bills easily cost £12000 +, I reared her from a week old, she was my best friend in every sense of the word. I didn’t have pet insurance at the time and her vet bills toward the end topped £7000 in about a year. We maxed out our credit card to pay. I’ve been an advocate of insurance ever since (the UK offers extensive, though expensive insurance). There is nothing worse than having a dog seriously ill and not having the money to pay for it.
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I have a dog that has required thousands of dollars in surgery, none of which was “life saving/prolonging” surgery. I am happy with my decision and my dog has an awesome life with a ton of love. I’ve experienced “judgement” about the money I’ve spent on him, but to each their own. I wouldn’t buy an expensive car, but do I judge those who do? No. It’s not how I choose to spend my money. I am financially responsible, so if I choose to spend my money on my dog rather than my wardrobe, how can someone judge me? It’s about priorities.
@LifeandMyFinances Think hard and fast before you call people “crazy” for spending money on potentially life saving surgery-it’s incredibly insensitive and yes, callous. If I’d never experienced something that is important to YOU, and I called you crazy, how would you feel? I mean this gently, and I know tone is an issue, but seriously, don’t judge people for who they love and who/what they consider family.
That said, I’ve made the decision that I would not spend money to prolong his life, especially if he would suffer. But I don’t judge those who do. I understand the deep connection and love people develop with their pets, and if you want to spend $30K on your pet, it’s your money and DON’T let anyone make you feel bad for your priorities.
Since I am past the point of pet insurance for my pup, I have also started an ING sub savings account as well. I financed his surgeries with Care Credit, and had a great experience with them. Once I incurred a late payment fee due to some confusion about the weekend and business hours, and Care Credit removed it immediately, and the customer service rep was extremely nice. I paid the bills off each time well in advance of the date my zero financing period ran out.
Sierra, I’m very sorry for your loss. Sounds like Monster lived a great life
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I adopted a cat a few years ago and found out he had a heart murmur when I took him to the vet. I put him on insurance and it has been totally worth it. If your pet is crazy healthy (which you never know) I would say skip the insurance. But it is nice having it as a back-up for emergencies and for sick pets.
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so sorry for your loss! monster sounds like a great kitty.
i dont have pet insurance, and for a while i had care credit- but i dropped that as soon as i found out the rates (something like 25% while my other plain credit cards were around 11 and 12….
i agree with #18 and disagree heavily with #1. reasons like this are why we make money and save it. there is no rainier day than a sick animal.
i also empathize with the relief over check-writing. my relatively young and otherwise healthy ferret i adopted two years ago started showing signs of cancer this past summer. we took him in and because of my emergency fund i was able to get him right into surgery without a second thought. he recovered and is happily bouncing back around, he’s sleeping in the bathroom as i type this. best chunk of change i ever spent.
i have to wonder about poster #1. if you don’t spend your hard-earned money on your sick loved ones, what do you spend it on? mutual funds? a new car?
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I have to disagree with the criteria for insurance being “covering routine expenses”. My criteria is the premiums vs. what it is covering. Term life insurance is the perfect example – it does not cover any “routine” expenses but it has a large payout for a small premium. I don’t buy pet insurance because I think the premiums are too high for the small amount (a few thousand) they pay out.
Our health insurance does cover routine expenses but for some people it makes more sense to buy insurance that only covers large bills.
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I’m sorry to hear about Monster. I hope your kids have as enjoyable of memories with their kittens as you do of Monster.
I have always passed on pet insurance for the reasons you outlined, but in the case of our current cat I wish we hadn’t. She has what appears to be a recurring condition of unknown cause (which is a good thing, because the known causes of the condition are all fatal.) Luckily our vet is a sweetheart and only charges for the specific treatment and not his time, because at one point we were taking her in weekly for a period of three months.
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I’m sorry you lost Monster.
Cats vary widely in how much care they need, and also where you lives determines what’s not available; the youngest of our cats (who is now
has been the most expensive, and had bladder surgery when she was 4; the oldest (who died at 17 last year) only ever got routine shots; and the other elderly cat (now 18) mostly only got routine medical care but was ill a few times.
The elderly cat is mine, and she only got medical care when I could afford it; the youngest cat is my tender-hearted partner’s and he shelled out thousands of dollars on her care when I probably would have had her put to sleep.
Getting kittens for kids probably means being committed to a pretty steep level of care if the cat happens to have congenital issues (as our youngest cat did) or develops an illness later in life. On my own, I’ve never done the pet care insurance, but if we’d thought to do it for our youngest cat (now that I know my partner will spend so much on her care, I think I might) I might have saved money.
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That smiley should say my young cat is 8!
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I have heard that pet insurance is only worth it if a) you have an older pet and b) you have psychic abilities to know if and in what year they will have catastrophic medical expenses.
For the two pets that we’ve had die in the past 5 years they did have medical expenses towards the end of life but in the 100′s not thousands, because at that point there was nothing to be done other than palliative. For my sister in law, when her elderly cat had a stroke, she was given the option of expensive heart surgery and rehabilitation, but the vet actually advised against it because the chances of success were so improbable. There may be more gray cases but often in these situations what to do becomes clear and having pet insurance is not going to make the difference.
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Thanks for this post! I’ve been going back and forth over the decision on whether to get pet insurance. I didn’t realize that pet insurance doesn’t cover routine care. For cats, I think what you mentioned about indoor vs outdoor cats is a really important factor because not only are indoor cats less likely to get injured, but they’re less likely to get a contagious disease. I also think that if you feed your cat a high quality diet and make sure they maintain a healthy weight, you can also significantly reduce their risk of having serious health problems.
RIP Monster!
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For a dog or cat, I think your argument is a great one. However, I can think of one big exception, which is my own pet: a horse.
Granted, horse expenses are through the roof anyway, and routine care can easily top $1,000 a year, but the costs of anything outside of routine care just skyrocket the second you call the vet.
Equine health insurance usually covers major medical and a variation on end of life/loss of use. Your costs for it are usually assessed by a certain percentage of your horse’s value – so if you have a $75,000 show hunter it runs into real money, but for my little mustang, who might be worth $8,000 on the open market, it’s much more affordable. (OTOH you might want a way of recouping that $75,000 investment if something terrible happens.)
Horse emergency expenses can run into the thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat. Say a horse wrenches its fetlock in turnout; you want the vet out for a routine lameness exam; he suggests xrays; even if nothing is wrong and it’s just some stall rest and bute, you’re out $500. Anything more serious adds up very fast, with follow up xrays, MRIs, trips to the vet hospital.
Not to mention colic surgery. If my horse needed surgery, I’d have to decide if his life is worth $7,500. I don’t want to have to do that. I’d gladly pay the insurance premiums so I don’t have to. One major medical incident will make up for years of paying premiums.
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I pay less that $200 a year for pet insurance on our dog. That only covers emergencies, not routine care. Routine care is an option, but it makes it much more expensive, and I figured that was easy for me to budget for. I haven’t used the insurance at all this year, but in the first year I used it my dog had thousands of dollars in tests and care to diagnose him with Addison’s Disease (which is easily treatable with medication, but which would have eventually killed him if not diagnosed). I got about half of what I paid in vet bills back, which is way more than I have paid for the insurance, so it seems to still be a good decision for me. One thing to note is that pet insurance does still exclude pre-existing conditions (we had to submit vet records for the previous year to prove that the dog hadn’t already been diagnosed with Addison’s Disease). For that reason, we didn’t get pet insurance for our elderly cat, since we figured everything would be a preexisting condition with him.
I can’t say that I think pet insurance is necessary, and emergency fund savings are never a bad decision, but it has bought me a little peace of mind, and I guess that’s worth the cost for me personally.
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We insured our last two dogs. We found that when the major health problems came we were still left paying a large sum out of pocket, in addition to the premiums. Therefore, we decided to self-insure with our newest dog.
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My condolences on the loss of your dear Monster.
We’ve had our cat for a little over two years, and the pet insurance we bought for her costs us about half what you’re quoting and has basically paid for itself for the last two calendar years. Our cat is unfortunately a bit more special needs than most cats her age, so we’re looking at slightly higher-than-usual vet bills over the course of her life, so we’re also socking some away in savings on the side: our insurance requires payment upfront and then reimburses us later.
Like with anything, do what works for you. Where we are financially, the insurance gives us some peace of mind. In a few more years when we’re better situated I think we might rethink it.
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Note that the initial cost of pet insurance will dramatically increase with the age of the pet. So what started out at $25/month for my cat at the age of 1, ended up $70/mo at the age of 15. She lived until 19.
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Posters #1 and #10: Have you considered being pet foster parents? It seems like the level of responsibility that you’re looking for. Foster parents often get food allowances and have their vet bills paid for them, but they get to spend a lot of quality time with their foster pets. This would alleviate your personal financial concerns, but still allow a loved animal to receive life saving veterinary care. Just a thought. . .
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Sorry about the loss of your pet. I agree with you about the pet insurance. However, maybe where you live affects whether you need it or not because I had a dog with a torn
ACL a few years ago and the total cost for surgery to repair it plus extras like x-rays, meds, etc. came to about $1000. After reading some of the other comments on costs of similiar surgeries I’m really surprised at how much they had to pay. I can only guess that the difference in cost is related to cost of living in different areas.
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We don’t have pet insurance, but we do have a pre-paid ‘wellness plan’ through Banfield. For about $550 a year our two cats (who are 8 and 13) are completely covered for preventative care, vaccinations and office visits. No paperwork to file; we just show up at the vet office and everything is already taken care of. There is a plan discount (I think it’s 5-10%) on other vet services and medications, should they need major emergency care.
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Sorry for your loss. I’m incredibly attached to my cat after just a few years…
I agree with your conclusion though that in most cases pet insurance isn’t a great deal.
My wife and I have a ceiling on what we would pay for medical services for our cat (in the 1K range). As long as we are able to emotionally stick to that in a crisis time, then pet insurance definitely doesn’t make sense for us.
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Get your dog trained! Dog training is an investment that will help protect your dog’s life! Imagine that you are outside and something dangerous is about to happen to your doggy. Just tell her to COME and she will come racing to you. Dog training for the basic 5 popular commands of sit, come, stay, here, and down will cost about $350. That is about $00.08 a day if your dog lives 11 years.
Now, factor in your dog’s daily living expense with an extra eight cents a day and you can see that dog training is worth it. Oh, and now a days, the dog trainer comes to YOUR home for the 1 hour session! (Each command is 1 hour long) How convenient is that!? Morning, afternoon, or evening times they can come. We just had our dog trained, this is how i know. =)
Check out the trainers in your area this moment and call or email them right now. Don’t put this off and think an accident can’t ever happen to your dog. This entire post above is about insurance and not being able to predict the future accidents that can occur with your pets. Dog training is a one time thing that lasts a life time. Plus, dogs love to follow commands! They are happy and you are happy! WIN/WIN!
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=home+dog+training+Trevose&aq=&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=83f87efc6f926f13
Good luck! And Happy new year to everyone!
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We have had pet care plan for our dog through Petsmart’s Banfield Vets and I ran through the numbers and just on the cost of routine care alone, the pet care plan saves us about 250 a year.
My understanding is that there are a lot of products, so I doubt a 1 size fits all solution is correct. Policies and Circumstances vary, so do research your unique situation.
In addition to the care, the insurance part saved us about 1K on a big surgery for our middle-ish aged dog (@ the time) and clearly paying the same out of pocket to keep our furry companion alive and happy many years after the surgery was so very much worth it.
Many non-pet owners seem to think that spending $$ to care for one’s pets is wasteful. As someone who for a long time was not a pet owner and then transitioned to being one, I can say that I clearly did not understand what having a pet is like as an experience when I did not have one.
I think JD’s mantra really should apply here: Do what works for you, which sadly, in my opinion, is not reflected as much by the author.
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I don’t have pet insurance for my two cats, and doubt the older one would qualify based on preexisting conditions. I sat down two years ago and figured out how much food should cost for them for a month. I also averaged out how much I was paying for kitty litter. These two expenses, plus $50 for emergencies, gets set aside every month. So even though it costs me $40 a month for food, I’m not actually buying it every month since I buy the largest size bag I can. This means that left over money at least earns a few pennies interest. Over the past two years, this has added up nicely, and I’ve now got an emergency account for the cats that I pay all their expenses out of. Vet visit? Paid. 16lb bag of dry food and two cases of wet? Paid. This is separate from my own emergency account so that I don’t need to feel any financial guilt spending money that I’ve already set aside for them (though I do make my predilection for buying more cat toys come out of my spending money).
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I don’t see any problem with paying a fair amount of money to save a pet’s life. People will spend tens of thousands of dollars to fix up an old car, or go on a vacation in Europe. Maybe for some people their dog is more important to them than their car or their travels? It seems reasonable to me.
Even still, I wouldn’t buy pet insurance. Most pet health problems aren’t expensive enough that I’d think it necessary, which is a stark contrast to health insurance for people. A friend of mine was involved in a motorcycle accident and quickly racked up what would have been a six-figure hospital bill if his insurance hadn’t been paying 80% of it (and as it was, still came out over $20,000). In contrast, it seems rare for a procedure for a pet to cost more than $2000.
I spent $1300 on treatment for a cat once. He’s fine now. It was sort of expensive but we could afford it. I also spent about $1000 once to put down a sick and aging horse. It was incredibly sad, but the cost wasn’t really that huge of a part of the whole process. I’d also imagine health insurance for horses would be ridiculously expensive.
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Just a note- I have 3 dogs currently- 2 Yorkies and a German Shepherd. I decided to not get pet insurance when they were puppies, since routine care is part of the deal with dogs, as is feeding them, walking them, brushing them, getting them groomed monthly (Yorkies)and cleaning up after them. The only thing that has been out of control is TEETH CLEANING for dogs! Yorkies have notoriously bad teeth and they need their teeth brushed daily and cleaned professionally at least once a year. Shepherds have better teeth, but still need daily brushing and every-other-year cleaning. This requires blood work, anesthesia, and surgery. The cheapest we’ve paid for a Yorkie with no teeth removal is $400 for cleaning. In January, we will be paying about $700 for our GSD to have her teeth cleaned at age 10. It may be even more since she will probably have a couple of teeth that need to be removed. I understand that newer policies also include teeth cleaning. It might be worth it for the next puppy we acquire to get insurance just for the teeth cleaning!
As a note- we do love our dogs and chose the breeds on purpose. And yes, I can afford the care for my dogs, even without insurance. I’m not complaining, just offering an opinion for others to consider.
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Great topic! My five-year-old miniature dachshund has had two back surgeries in the last two years, each costing about $4000. Because of this, my husband and I were considering pet insurance for our next pet, especially if we get another dachshund. After research, though, I came to the same conclusion – the cost over the lifetime of the pet is not worth it. It’s better to just save that money in case you need it. Thanks for confirming!
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