Should I Get Pet Insurance?

To many folks, pets are an important member of their family. As such, they would do anything for them.

But when the family pet gets sick with a life-threatening illness, you could be faced with expensive veterinary care that you haven’t quite budgeted for and be put in a tight financial spot.

Take for example some real-life costs of typical surgical procedures: gastric dilation volvulus (bloat), $3,525; foreign-body ingestion, $2,964; cancer, $5,351; hit by a car with a fractured pelvis, $3,717. Here is a link to the source of the information with other examples.

It’s situations like these that pet insurance can be as valuable as people health insurance.

does it make sense to buy?

Whether you choose to purchase insurance or self-insure, you’ll need to weigh what you can afford over your pet’s expected life span.

For example, as your pet ages, the more you’ll pay to insure them and the less the insurance company will likely cover. At some point, it makes sense drop the insurance and purely pay out of pocket.

You can choose to self-insure (paying for medical care with your own accumulated funds) for the entire lifetime of your pet. If you’re going to self-insure, it is smart to set up a designated account exclusively for your pet’s care. That way the funds aren’t comingled with other emergency reserves and used for another purpose.

Having the foundation in place to care for your pet — without going into a financial strait — will avoid putting you in the situation of having to decide to put them to sleep because of money.

Before you buy

Okay, you’ve made the decision to purchase the insurance. There are few things you need to do before handing any money over to the insurance company.

• Read the policy very carefully. As with anything, you need to look at the terms of the coverage. Some companies apply the deductible per incident, others per year. Make sure you know what you are buying.
• Understand co-pays, deductibles, and caps. Pet insurance works differently than human health insurance. Know how much you’ll be responsible for paying and how you’ll be reimbursed by the insurance company.
• Know what is excluded. Generally, you won’t be reimbursed for anything preventable and many times there are breed-specific exclusions.

Pet insurance is more about peace of mind than anything. Having the coverage may give you the freedom to make medical decisions for you pets based on their quality of life, and not because of finances.