With improved medical technology and extensive research coupled with healthy dietary choices pets are living longer just like their owners. This means you have to prepare for injuries, illness and age-related complications for your pet.
Pets become part of the family life and that involves a lot of financial expenses in food, shelter but mostly health costs. With over $25 billion spend on vets annually pet’s health is a key financial consideration.
More than $870 million was spent on pet insurance payments in 2015 which may not always, be a good move considering the limiting packages offered by these insurance firms.
Pet insurance is a good move when they are young and rack up less medical bills from vet visits and their immune systems is still very healthy. Pet treatment is expensive, when they ingest a foreign objects where you are bound to pay up to $1300 in surgical costs while a cat with pneumonia will come close to $1000 in bills.
The hardest part about decision making when it comes to pet insurance is that you are planning for what ifs. You can put money aside without investing in pet insurance. But what if you rack up a huge bill that breaks your account? Chances are you will not have saved enough money to take care of the procedure.
These insurances vary depending on the state, age of the pet, species, type of plan, the deductibles, pet size as well as the pre-existing conditions. The average pet plan costs about $25. Premiums for emergency care comes to about $12 which covers accidents only. The everyday pet insurance, costs between $18-35 dollars including flea control and vaccination. Comprehensive pet care charges range from $35-41 and covers a range of illnesses, accidents and hereditary issues.
While it may seem like the safer option in the long haul pet insurance doesn’t always add up. Some expensive coverage’s exclude some of the basic and recurrent illnesses making them redundant. Others do not provide enough cover to make actual medical sense, since your out of pocket top up will still be a significant inclusion.
The question to ask yourself is, after I have paid for premium, co-pays, deductibles do these costs outweigh the kind of cover that I am getting? And does it include recurrent pre-existing conditions. You also have to figure out the premium rate change. How often do they change and what is the process by which the insurance firms structure it?
At the end you are choosing the least deductibles and lowest premium that gives you the widest coverage possible.
Dr. Pippa Elliott BVMS, MRCVS, is a veterinarian with over two decades of experience treating cats and dogs. She is also a research contributor to https://www.petinsuranceu.com/. When she’s not working, she’s relaxing at home in London with a house full of her own beloved pets.
