What's Your experience with Pet Insurance?

[MickeyD'sMom]

Hi all:
We are spending $804.00 a year for pet insurance and so far it is a great diappointment. It's with VPI. I did not do a whole lot of research before I ordered it so shame on me, however, my vet was endorsing it so I assumed it was a good one. They take forever to process a claim then half the time they are denying it. Just going back and forth with them is rdiculous. Has anyone had a good experience, and if so, what company is it with. I probably will cancel this one.

[huklbre]

I have VPI for Jake and my premium is $326 for the year and that includes the vaccination and routine care coverage. I haven't had to use it yet but it doesn't sound promising based on your experience.

[MickeyD'sMom]

Well Matt first of all lets hope you don't have to use and second I hope if you do you have better luck than us.

[knucklehead]

I have a wellness program through Banfield Pet Hospital. I pay $34.95 a month which is the top of the tier of price choices. All office visits are free(even walk in emergency, had to do it once) as well as all neccesary vaccinations. She gets 2 comprehensive exams, 2 EKG's a year, 1 teeth cleaning a year including the anesthesia ($400 or so by itself for a cleaning)) as well as 1 chest x-ray a year. Blood, urine(additional comprehensive urinalysis and sediment test) and feces tests. Discounts on any medication or surgeries if needed. My wife and I have saved over $3500 in the 5 years we have had Maggie. There is other stuff but I can't remember it all.
Hope this helps,
Frank and Maggie

www.banfield.net
www.petsmart.com/banfield/index.shtml

[Stanley]

Funny you bring this up cause I just enrolled the brown clown on a plan. Lots to choose from and everyone seems to have good and bad stories about a particular pet plan.

I just finished checking out a few well known companies and decided to try Pets Best www.petsbest.com. They seemed to have good plans for the dollar and the least complaints, VPI was the first to be knocked off my list of prospects. Keep your fingers crossed that I only have to use the wellness plan.

[Chase]

Sandra:

I have never had any kind of pet insurance before. Then when Chase had his first TPLO on his knee, I ask his veterinary surgeon her take on pet insurance and she said that the insurance company would only have paid a small protion of his bill because they determine what they think a surgery etc SHOULD cost rather than what it does cost. The main problem is that unlike with human health insurance, there is no agreement between the vet and the insurance company to accept the lower amount.

I talked with VPI and they quoted me a price, but they would never answer any questions about how much they actually pay out. I searched through their web site and finally found the "payout page". They said that they would cover $ 10,000 (or whatever the figure was), for each illness but when I looked into the specifics, I found that they would only pay small amounts per problem. So, if your dog had bills of $ 10,000 for an operation, they might pay $ 300 for the anesthetic and $800 for the surgery and $ 200 for the meds, but no more than that. You would be responsible for the remainder of the bill. In order for them to pay the full $ 10,000, your dog would have to have 25 things wrong with him all at one time to add up to that amount.

In addition, VPI REFUSED me because Chase had an ear infection at the time and they would not insure him until he had been free of an ear for a full year. They also told me that when they get big bills from people, the first thing they do is request ALL records from all vets and sometimes they cancel the insurance after the fact is they see something in your records that they say was pre-existing.

Most of the vets I talked to said the only way to do it is to get insurance when your dog is born so that there is no argument.

Brooke & Chase

[Linda Hettich]

We initiallly had VPI with Kadin and they were horrible. Then we switched to Pets Health Care Plan. It was a little better; they didn't take as long processing the claims, seemed to cover more things. But, when it came time to renew, they were going to jack up the premium by more than $200, saying it was an across the board industry increase. I'd calculated Kadin's medical expenses, and we were spending more on insurance than on the actual treatments. Now, this was before he got sick. If we'd had it for the chemo treatments, it wouldn't have made much difference. At the time, there was a cap on chemo/cancer treatments, and we probably would have gotten back only a couple thousand dollars. We'd already saved that amount by NOT having insurance. So, the rest we would have had to pay out of pocket anyway. I know it's probably a good idea to have it, but like people insurance, there are many problems. I'd have to really be convinced a plan was good to make the investment again.