The great pet insurance debate
I admit it. I’m frugal. I do enjoy shopping when I have the cash and the need, but I am not a fan of unnecessary monthly bills. So, I’m always looking for places to trim the budget, either to make room for something else or to eek out a bit more savings. For 2008, I’m seriously considering dropping Lilly’s health insurance. It’s less than $20 per month, but the more I look at our policy, the less useful it seems.
For example, routine care like exams and vaccinations are not covered. Dental work, unless it’s from an injury, is not covered. Any behavior-related care is not covered. And, there’s a pretty high deductible per incident (rather than an overall annual deductible).
So, essentially, it’s a major medical policy. If something BIG happened, some of it would be reimbursable. BUT, if you read the fine print, there are also relatively low limits to coverage.
I first researched and wrote about pet insurance back in the mid-1990s. It was a piece for a veterinary trade magazine, and at the time, the conclusion seemed to be that it wasn’t much help to your average pet owner and that it wasn’t necessarily doing much for veterinarians either.
I could switch to a different company. Apparently, the CO agility community banded together and got some kind of discounted rate from Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI). But, I don’t know much about the costs or coverage.
Lilly is the only dog of mine that’s had insurance. Until now, my “self-insured” plan was to break out the credit card when something big happened (like Ginko’s 2 blown knees).
So … what’s keeping me from canceling the policy? Superstition. I’m terrified that as soon as I cancel it Lilly will get sick or hurt or something, and I’ll go broke trying to pay for it.
But, I’m a little annoyed that this money gets sucked out of my account every month with little benefit so far (or possibly ever).
Help?! Weigh in. Do you or don’t you have insurance on your dogs? Has it helped in a real way? If so, what do you have and how much does it cost?