Is Pet Insurance Worth It?
Let's face it, no matter how well we take care of our pets we cannot prevent all injuries or illnesses. Oftentimes these unexpected vet bills come at the worst times when you're strapped for cash and a $1000 vet bill isn't exactly in the budget. Emergency vet visits are even more costly and can rack up to thousands of dollars! When we adopted our cats, we weighed the pros and cons of purchasing pet insurance. Pros: emergency or unexpected vet visits would be reimbursed once we hit tour deductible. Cons: most insurance companies do not cover any breeding related injuries or accidents and do not cover preexisting conditions. Also the monthly premiums add up (since we have insurance on all 5 of our Maine Coons).
Pet Insurance Plans
All pet insurance plans are different and the monthly cost varies depending on the age and current health of your pet. For us, we pay about $20 per cat per month for Pet Plan Insurance. That may seem like a lot of money to invest in something you may never need, but did you know the average cost for a broken leg is $1500? Bladder stones can be close to $1000. I'd say $20 per cat is a fair price and takes some of the fear away from having to pay for an unexpected vet bill!
How Does Pet Insurance Work?
For our policy through PetPlan, we were allowed to set the deductible amount and the reimbursement amount. Since we chose the $400 deductible amount and the 80% reimbursement, once we reach $400 in expenses the insurance will reimburse us for 80% of the vet bill. For instance if one of our cats needed xrays for a broken leg, a cast and antibiotics with a total of $1400, we would end up getting back $800. Even though the monthly premiums add up, getting some money back from a huge vet bill can be a lifesaver!
Most Pet Insurance companies will setup a free quote on their website, in my opinion if your pet is young and has no pre-exisiting conditions it's worth it to have pet insurance!
Top Ten Pet Insurance Companies
