The skinny on pet insurance
July 29, 2019 10:34 AM Subscribe
Pet insurance-- I know it's a contentious subject, but I'm trying to decide whether to insure my elderly dog.
I've never had pet insurance before. I looked into it last year for my 14ish (exact age not known) year old chihuahua, Buddy, but premiums were prohibitively expensive because of his age. However, I just saw that my work is offering a plan through Nationwide which is affordable as it doesn't seem to take his age into account. The plan covers 90% of costs, $250 deductible, $7,500 max benefit.
It's $47/month, which isn't cheap, but I feel like we've dodged a bullet so far and a big bill is inevitable eventually. I have a fully funded emergency fund that could handle a big vet bill, but it would be really painful to pull out $3k or $4k, especially knowing that he is already pretty elderly. I would also hate to be put into a position where I was making the calculus on whether I was willing to keep paying to try to save him. We're really attached to this little guy but... he's already older and we don't make oodles of money and a big vet bill would be a big deal. I feel like there's some emotional value to being covered from that situation.
I'd love you thoughts on pet insurance in general in my situation, and any thoughts on Nationwide specifically.
Also, I know that it won't cover pre-existing conditions and I have a few questions about that:
-Do they require vet records going back forever before they pay a claim? Buddy has only lived with us for 5 years, prior to that he lived with a family member but I'm not sure whether we'd truly be able to track down a comprehensive health history.
-What can be denied as a pre-existing condition? Things that would already be in the vet records include arthritis, a sensitive stomach, and a mass/tumor on his hind leg he has had for quite a while which we decided not to remove after the vet advised us it would be a highly invasive surgery. She did a fine needle aspirate and couldn't tell us from that whether or not it was benign. Where is the line drawn between 'pre-existing' and not pre-existing for a dog that has a few chronic issues that could cause larger problems down the line?
Thanks!
I've never had pet insurance before. I looked into it last year for my 14ish (exact age not known) year old chihuahua, Buddy, but premiums were prohibitively expensive because of his age. However, I just saw that my work is offering a plan through Nationwide which is affordable as it doesn't seem to take his age into account. The plan covers 90% of costs, $250 deductible, $7,500 max benefit.
It's $47/month, which isn't cheap, but I feel like we've dodged a bullet so far and a big bill is inevitable eventually. I have a fully funded emergency fund that could handle a big vet bill, but it would be really painful to pull out $3k or $4k, especially knowing that he is already pretty elderly. I would also hate to be put into a position where I was making the calculus on whether I was willing to keep paying to try to save him. We're really attached to this little guy but... he's already older and we don't make oodles of money and a big vet bill would be a big deal. I feel like there's some emotional value to being covered from that situation.
I'd love you thoughts on pet insurance in general in my situation, and any thoughts on Nationwide specifically.
Also, I know that it won't cover pre-existing conditions and I have a few questions about that:
-Do they require vet records going back forever before they pay a claim? Buddy has only lived with us for 5 years, prior to that he lived with a family member but I'm not sure whether we'd truly be able to track down a comprehensive health history.
-What can be denied as a pre-existing condition? Things that would already be in the vet records include arthritis, a sensitive stomach, and a mass/tumor on his hind leg he has had for quite a while which we decided not to remove after the vet advised us it would be a highly invasive surgery. She did a fine needle aspirate and couldn't tell us from that whether or not it was benign. Where is the line drawn between 'pre-existing' and not pre-existing for a dog that has a few chronic issues that could cause larger problems down the line?
Thanks!
I thought about getting pet insurance for my (then) 6 year old dog and ultimately decided against it due to numerous stories of denied claims due to preexisting conditions. Basically, it seems that unless you take out the insurance on a puppy, it's not worth it, because unless it's something acute (dog ate a pound of dark chocolate, dog broke a leg) they'll call it a preexisting condition. Especially in your situation where you don't have a comprehensive medical history, I'd skip it.
posted by Automocar at 11:05 AM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 11:05 AM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Pet insurance is best, in my experience, as something you get when you have a very young pet with no pre-existing stuff. An older pet is likely - though you can certainly check a specific policy's exclusions - not going to be covered for any chronic issue that's already in the records. An older pet would likely be covered for anything genuinely new that pops up - I did have a cat who developed diabetes in his final year and insurance covered most of the costs of his care without a fuss - but they seem to take a pretty broad view of pre-existing, and if your pet ever had a sniffle, that's now a pre-existing condition.
You have to do the risk calculation that feels right for you, and maybe that's buying yourself peace of mind via the insurance. But in terms of the just plain numbers, I think I'd be inclined in your shoes to tuck that $47 a month into your emergency savings instead to bolster them against your dog's eventual health needs.
posted by Stacey at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2019
You have to do the risk calculation that feels right for you, and maybe that's buying yourself peace of mind via the insurance. But in terms of the just plain numbers, I think I'd be inclined in your shoes to tuck that $47 a month into your emergency savings instead to bolster them against your dog's eventual health needs.
posted by Stacey at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2019
Best answer: I thought a lot about the cost/benefit of this and decided to get it for the puppy. In my case, the worry of potentially needing to pay 5-10k unexpectedly is greater than the worry of paying a small monthly fee, so the piece of mind is well worth it for me even if I never need to use it (hopefully).
In your specific case, it's hard to tell if it's worth it since you're very likely to start having bigger vet bills in the next few years, but these could be related to the conditions on his record (and the companies usually try really hard to link anything new to a pre-existing condition).
One big thing for you is that if that mass turns out to be a problem in any way (even if benign), it will unfortunately not be covered at all. I would also be worried about it disqualifying him for any type of cancer-related vet bills in the future if you can't prove the original mass was benign - and cancer is unfortunately quite common in older dogs. Likewise, any future joint problems might not be covered since they'll try to link it to the arthritis, even if it's not a direct cause. Anything remotely related to any documented past issues won't be covered by any company. I suspect that if you call the insurance company, they would be able to tell you exactly what things your dog's vet record would disqualify him for in the future - I wouldn't trust this 100% since they're obviously trying to make a sale, but it still might be helpful.
posted by randomnity at 11:19 AM on July 29, 2019
In your specific case, it's hard to tell if it's worth it since you're very likely to start having bigger vet bills in the next few years, but these could be related to the conditions on his record (and the companies usually try really hard to link anything new to a pre-existing condition).
One big thing for you is that if that mass turns out to be a problem in any way (even if benign), it will unfortunately not be covered at all. I would also be worried about it disqualifying him for any type of cancer-related vet bills in the future if you can't prove the original mass was benign - and cancer is unfortunately quite common in older dogs. Likewise, any future joint problems might not be covered since they'll try to link it to the arthritis, even if it's not a direct cause. Anything remotely related to any documented past issues won't be covered by any company. I suspect that if you call the insurance company, they would be able to tell you exactly what things your dog's vet record would disqualify him for in the future - I wouldn't trust this 100% since they're obviously trying to make a sale, but it still might be helpful.
posted by randomnity at 11:19 AM on July 29, 2019
Best answer: I have Nationwide for my pup. During the application you have to disclose any prior vet visits and the reasons for those visits. My dog can be inexplicably pukey (see previous questions) and so Nationwide won't cover anything pertaining to the gastric system. One unpleasant surprise is that they won't cover anti-anxiety meds for fireworks etc. because they consider that "behavioral." On the good side, the insurance saved us more than a thousand dollars on his dental work.
posted by zeusianfog at 1:28 PM on July 29, 2019
posted by zeusianfog at 1:28 PM on July 29, 2019
Addendum: they did not request medical records when I applied, but presumably if I omitted something and they suspected as much they could request the records and then void the whole policy.
posted by zeusianfog at 1:29 PM on July 29, 2019
posted by zeusianfog at 1:29 PM on July 29, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks everyone, these thoughts on pre-existing conditions are pretty helpful.
Sounds like it's probably not worth it for my little guy specifically because something related to the gastric system and/or cancer are basically the things I'm worried about costing $$$ and sounds like they'd probably both be considered pre-existing.
posted by geegollygosh at 7:55 AM on July 30, 2019
Sounds like it's probably not worth it for my little guy specifically because something related to the gastric system and/or cancer are basically the things I'm worried about costing $$$ and sounds like they'd probably both be considered pre-existing.
posted by geegollygosh at 7:55 AM on July 30, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also in addition to pre-existing conditions like health insurance, pet insurance also has "ineligible conditions" and you will want a specific list of what those are.
posted by pintapicasso at 11:01 AM on July 29, 2019