Nowadays, pet insurance still raises a lot of concerns, the same as human health insurance. If you are thinking of these options there’s always an issue you need to take into account, and it is whether you can predict the future expenses connected with your pet’s health yourself or you need an additional lifeline to ensure your beloved babe will be taken care of. In this question, only you can decide, but before, you’ll certainly need to find out the main features of the pet insurance available in your country and for your pet.
In general, it’s much easier to set the insurance for such animals like cats and dogs due to a couple of reasons: they are widespread, their lifespan is more or less predictable, and modern veterinary medicine has developed a clear list of services with the costs easy to calculate. If you have an exotic pet, you might face the problem of finding an insurance company ready to work in this field. Small animals, like hamsters, guinea pigs, and mice are also difficult to provide insurance for as their lifespan is low, and the list of health conditions they are genetically predisposed to is quite long. At first, let’s think about the main cases you may need pet insurance in and the aspects that need to be taken into account while choosing an insurance type.
Cases You’ll Need to Have an Insurance in
At first, you should understand that sometimes pet insurance is as necessary as pet food or dog and cat accessories, like dog chew toys, dog toothbrush stick, or water fountains for cats and dogs. You might think your pet can live without them, but from a long-term perspective, they are really necessary. Among the most widespread cases insurance normally cover are:
– Death of the pet
– Vet costs (scheduled visits to the veterinary)
– Usual healthcare procedures (dental care, physiotherapy)
– Severe health conditions (long-term diseases, injuries)
– Breeding-related risks
– Loss or theft of the pet…
Depending on the number of risks it covers, a chosen insurance program can vary significantly in the means of cost and excesses you’ll have to pay yourself in addition to those the insurance company pays.
Your Pet General Condition
If you have a young puppy, active and always ready to play with you or run through the dog agility tunnel in the backyard, it’s always hard to imagine the situation can change, and you’ll need to use health insurance for him. But anyway, everything can easily happen. The older the dogs are, the more difficult it is to find a good and advantageous insurance program for them. It is obvious that older pets are more likely to need more sophisticated healthcare in the nearest future.
Some insurance companies are ready to cooperate with dog keepers whose pets are younger than seven years. So, in general, the better decision is to buy insurance when your pet is still young. Besides, the pre-existing conditions of your pet will be analyzed completely. If your pet is healthy in general and doesn’t have a long medical history, it’s not a problem to find an appropriate insurance solution for him. Otherwise, if some health disorders are easily detected you are likely not to get an insurance cover at all.
Type of Insurance You are Choosing
The type of insurance you are ready to choose for your pet, and the claim basis can be different. For example, per year or per condition. Per year claim basis provides the cover of treatment procedures within certain cost limits. So, if the expenses have exceeded the amount mentioned before the end of the insurance year, you have to cover future ones yourself until you pay for the next insurance year.
But when you renew the insurance, treatment cover will be also renewed. Per condition claim basis is provided to cover the expenses of several health conditions within a certain period of time (usually within a year).
Usually, by this insurance type, we mean a certain list of life conditions in which treatment will be covered within a year. Here, you should be careful, whether all the risks are taken into account by the policy program, especially when we think about the diseases your pet’s breed is predisposed to, or those widespread in your region or easily appearing due to the certain weather condition.
The other vital issue you’ll need to analyze is the stability of the fees and general policy of the company you’re going to cooperate with. Be careful with those who increase the amount of excess payment as your pet gets older. In this way, you’ll have to pay long veterinary bills yourself having paid quite a high price upfront.
How to Choose the Appropriate Insurance Policy
First of all, you should avoid quick decisions and choosing any kind of insurance basis without a deep analysis of all the pros and cons. Remember to read all the pages, especially those containing small fonts and additional conditions. Choosing certain insurance beware about the switching costs.
Some situations cannot predict, so each time you’ll like to change the insurance plan or an insurance company will be due to the fact you’ve exceeded your premium. So, it will be taken into consideration as the pre-existing conditions. So, if something really money-consuming happens you may find it hard to get the insurance for the next year in general.
If your financial resource is limited, think about what other alternatives you may rely on if you don’t agree on the insurance conditions. Of course, in comparison to humans, there’s no state support for health cases in pets, and the only additional help you can think of are charities, volunteers, and some crowd-funding ideas.
As for pet charities, they usually lack financing, so the amount of health you may get is really limited. Volunteers can’t also cover huge bills, they can provide other help instead, such as free veterinary services in a limited amount. So, in any case, it’s up to you to decide on the pet insurance, but let’s not forget that keeping a pet is a joy, but also a responsibility.
