Thoughtful Thursday-Should You Have Pet Insurance?

I've written before about how strongly pro-pet insurance I am and how much I love my Embrace Insurance policy.  If it were not for Embrace I would still be paying off the 6000 dollars (never mind that the initial estimate was 8000 dollars) for Norbert's emergency bloat surgery in 2011.   With Embrace I only had to pay 80% of the cost and Norbert, his dad, and I were all smiling.  



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When I brought Weasley home last May I had him insured before he even entered our house.

Still in the crate from the air plane ride but already insured.

To insure  four pets (Norbert, Bob, Weasley, and Scooter) I pay 150 dollars a month.   This covers them for emergency, illness, and medication.  Not covered is routine care (like annual exams and blood work), elective procedures like neutering, and there is a 200 dollar deductible.  Tubby, Ping, Baby, and Ernie are not insured the first three were too old for insurance by the time I got around to it and Ernie has a pre-existing heart condition that makes coverage impossible (however had I insured him as a kitten he would be covered as he wasn't diagnosed until age 1). There is no doubt that the insurance is expensive, but is it worth it?

In this older article from the NY times   Jennifer Schultz makes the argument that insurance is a waste of money as you can put the monthly  amount of the insurance bill into an account for pet emergencies.  She also argues that she pays only about $300 a year in medical care for her cat and has had only one pet health emergency which cost her $1000, making her vet expenses significantly less then the insurance pay out.   I find those numbers pretty low, every surgery my pets have had has cost $700 and up.  My experiences have been more like those of this family   from a Times article on the rising costs of pet care.  

At the time of Norbert's surgery my sister in law told me about an acquaintance of hers whose dog had the exact same emergency as Norbert, bloat and gastric torsion, they could not afford the surgery and had to have their dog put to sleep.  I cant imagine being in that position and having to deny my beloved dog life saving care.  It is in fact perhaps my greatest pet ownership regret that I did not insure Tubby, Ping, Baby, and Ernie when they were younger.  In the past five years I've paid $2000 dollars for Baby's treatment for fatty liver,    $3000 dollars for Tubby's mast cell tumor, and $2000 dollars for three surgeries in which Ping had suspicious lumps removed.  This is not including Norbert's bills which were covered. Insurance would definitely make me feel that I could handle all these bills with less worries.   Still I can see why some pet parents may not need insurance.   I think the  key questions to answer are:

1. Are you a pro at saving money?  Can you set aside a good amount every single month and not touch it? This is really not me and I'm honest about it.  I am not a total of failure at saving but I'm not a pro either.
2. Are you what my vet calls "a do everything owner" meaning will you want to pursue advanced specialist treatment for your pet.   I am and I choose Embrace because they cover cancer treatment, alternative therapies like chiropractic treatment, emergency and specialist care, and with the drug benefit  prescription medication.
3. Do you live close enough to major veterinary hospitals and specialists so that using them in an emergency would be feasible.  I know that plenty of people live miles from a major veterinary hospital and thus might never use the specialists that are easily accessible to a city dweller like myself.
4. Do you have multiple pets.   As a multiple pet owner I feel that insurance is even more important, if I have a major bill for one pet I don't want have to worry that I will have to neglect another or face financial ruin.

If you do choose to get insurance it is extremely important to do your homework.   A co-worker just told me that she had ASPCA insurance for her Yorkie and when the Yorkie developed congestive heart failure he was covered for the first year of treatment, but not for the second.  The company apparently considers any condition that lasts beyond one year pre-existing, even if it develops after you enroll your pet in the insurance plan.  As many pets live for years with chronic conditions this almost guarantees that your insurance payment will be wasted.

   In my opinion the best pet insurance companies are Embrace and Pet Plan, but of course needs are different for different people in different situations.  I would note that Pet Plan's emergency coverage is a bit iffy, they require your primary vet  to certify the reason for the visit, that means you don't know for sure if an emergency will be covered.   This  makes me uncomfortable since emergency hospital visits tends to be the most expensive of all.

The question I have for my fellow pet bloggers is  do you have insurance for your pets, do you think its  an essential part of pet ownership or a bad investment?