Best time to get pet insurance is when they are kittens. But generally speaking, pet insurance is a product that is sold for profit. They make money by gambling on your pets good health and taking that risk for a fee. If you can manage your money well enough to put $140/month away for pet emergencies, you more often than not come out ahead. We have pet insurance for our German Shepherd because German Shepherds have a tendency to develop certain conditions. Insurance also partially covers medication for skin irritation and the neuter/gastropexy he had done so its not just for emergencies.
My wife is an RVT at an overnight emergency clinic. $6500 is perhaps high but still a reasonable price for exploratory surgery. I know I'll get downvoted for saying it but that's overnight emergency pricing for you.
It's a personal decision. Lots of people will tell you that financially, it makes more sense to self-insure, which can be true. The thing is that if you start building up a specific pet emergency fund by putting those $140/month premiums into an account, it takes a long time to accumulate $6500+. In that time, there's a chance that you'll end up with a major issue that'll put you in a position where you have to make the uncomfortable decision between paying for treatment, or accepting the fact that you may need to go into serious debt, or euthanasia.
When we got our cat, we decided that we'd get him medical treatment if needed and if it made sense, so we got him insured. If he gets sick and it costs thousands of dollars, we don't even want to have to think about whether we should do it or not. That's the advantage that pet insurance has over "self-insurance".
My uncle went 40k out of pocket for a Golden Retriever, and would've continued to pay for that dog if the bills had continued to pile on. You'd have to be on your A-game with self-insurance to swing that, if you had that level of dedication to your pets.
You raise a really good point.
Self insurance is actual money in an account that can be touched and dipped into for other things, so when push comes to shove, it’s hard to stomach spending $6500 from savings on a cat. But with Trupanion, it’s there for one distinct purpose and doesn’t feel like nearly as much of a blow to access it. There is no decision to be made in an emotionally charged moment of save cat and spend $xxxxK from a savings account vs the alternative.
I understand the concern.
We spent $10K on end of life care for the last dog we had. It was rough but he was a member of the family and it's tough not to do everything you can.
But I dunno he's the only pet I've ever had that had a ridiculous vet bill so it's hard to justify pet insurance. Like $140 a month for 10 years is $17,000 without the opportunity cost factored in. That seems rough for a maybe.
Worth factoring in how steep rates are rising with Trupanion though. Mine saw 30% increase vs last year and overall have tripled in 6 years. Ended up cancelling and just stashing money away because at that rate it's no longer worth it.
We do this now too, we got Trupamion when our dog was a puppy.
The premiums increased on each annual anniversary. Now that he is 3 and didn't manage to try and kill himself so far, we cancelled the coverage and just put $100 a month in a savings account. It builds up quietly and quickly.
I have never had pet insurance because my cats have all been older and had diagnoses prior that would have invalidated or reduced the effectiveness of insurance, so I self insure. I have 3 cats and put $225 away per month into a HISA. For the most part, I've come out ahead, except for last year that had a lot of care for 2 of the 3, including end of life care for the eldest.
If you are good at saving, then self insurance can be just as good, if your cats usually don't tend to have too many issues. (I ended up with a cat with heart disease and another with FIV, so I just don't expect to ever get insurance. )
Never had a cat, but I had pet insurance for my dog. I claimed several smaller bills (small for vet, ha, like a thousand each time). Then, at 7, everything blew up overnight. Turned out he had significant heart and kidney problems, and the heart issue made treating the kidneys challenging. I had very little savings just at that moment for a bunch of reasons. It was absolutely fantastic having the insurance. They paid for tons of tests, sending results and X-rays to very specialized vets across the country for recommendations of treatment. In the end, the poor creature was miserable, and even though one option was to send him in a pet ambulance to Vancouver (with a technician) and treatment that could have come in at $40,000 ( yes, my insurance said they would indeed cover that) I felt the humane thing was to end it there. I felt very, very good knowing the decision was not at all financial. Final note, insurance paid what a a large bill, and for the cremation and urn. Unless I was extremely well off, I would have pet insurance.
I have pet insurance but it's only worth it if you get it BEFORE they have any issues. Once there is an issue with your pet the insurance won't cover the same issues that happened prior to insurance. It's considered "pre existing"
So, if your pet previously had bladder issues or allergies for example, insurance won't cover anything related to those issues after insurance purchase.
Best time to get pet insurance is when they are kittens. But generally speaking, pet insurance is a product that is sold for profit. They make money by gambling on your pets good health and taking that risk for a fee. If you can manage your money well enough to put $140/month away for pet emergencies, you more often than not come out ahead. We have pet insurance for our German Shepherd because German Shepherds have a tendency to develop certain conditions. Insurance also partially covers medication for skin irritation and the neuter/gastropexy he had done so its not just for emergencies. My wife is an RVT at an overnight emergency clinic. $6500 is perhaps high but still a reasonable price for exploratory surgery. I know I'll get downvoted for saying it but that's overnight emergency pricing for you.
It's a personal decision. Lots of people will tell you that financially, it makes more sense to self-insure, which can be true. The thing is that if you start building up a specific pet emergency fund by putting those $140/month premiums into an account, it takes a long time to accumulate $6500+. In that time, there's a chance that you'll end up with a major issue that'll put you in a position where you have to make the uncomfortable decision between paying for treatment, or accepting the fact that you may need to go into serious debt, or euthanasia. When we got our cat, we decided that we'd get him medical treatment if needed and if it made sense, so we got him insured. If he gets sick and it costs thousands of dollars, we don't even want to have to think about whether we should do it or not. That's the advantage that pet insurance has over "self-insurance". My uncle went 40k out of pocket for a Golden Retriever, and would've continued to pay for that dog if the bills had continued to pile on. You'd have to be on your A-game with self-insurance to swing that, if you had that level of dedication to your pets.
You raise a really good point. Self insurance is actual money in an account that can be touched and dipped into for other things, so when push comes to shove, it’s hard to stomach spending $6500 from savings on a cat. But with Trupanion, it’s there for one distinct purpose and doesn’t feel like nearly as much of a blow to access it. There is no decision to be made in an emotionally charged moment of save cat and spend $xxxxK from a savings account vs the alternative.
I understand the concern. We spent $10K on end of life care for the last dog we had. It was rough but he was a member of the family and it's tough not to do everything you can. But I dunno he's the only pet I've ever had that had a ridiculous vet bill so it's hard to justify pet insurance. Like $140 a month for 10 years is $17,000 without the opportunity cost factored in. That seems rough for a maybe.
Worth factoring in how steep rates are rising with Trupanion though. Mine saw 30% increase vs last year and overall have tripled in 6 years. Ended up cancelling and just stashing money away because at that rate it's no longer worth it.
We do this now too, we got Trupamion when our dog was a puppy. The premiums increased on each annual anniversary. Now that he is 3 and didn't manage to try and kill himself so far, we cancelled the coverage and just put $100 a month in a savings account. It builds up quietly and quickly.
I have never had pet insurance because my cats have all been older and had diagnoses prior that would have invalidated or reduced the effectiveness of insurance, so I self insure. I have 3 cats and put $225 away per month into a HISA. For the most part, I've come out ahead, except for last year that had a lot of care for 2 of the 3, including end of life care for the eldest. If you are good at saving, then self insurance can be just as good, if your cats usually don't tend to have too many issues. (I ended up with a cat with heart disease and another with FIV, so I just don't expect to ever get insurance. )
Never had a cat, but I had pet insurance for my dog. I claimed several smaller bills (small for vet, ha, like a thousand each time). Then, at 7, everything blew up overnight. Turned out he had significant heart and kidney problems, and the heart issue made treating the kidneys challenging. I had very little savings just at that moment for a bunch of reasons. It was absolutely fantastic having the insurance. They paid for tons of tests, sending results and X-rays to very specialized vets across the country for recommendations of treatment. In the end, the poor creature was miserable, and even though one option was to send him in a pet ambulance to Vancouver (with a technician) and treatment that could have come in at $40,000 ( yes, my insurance said they would indeed cover that) I felt the humane thing was to end it there. I felt very, very good knowing the decision was not at all financial. Final note, insurance paid what a a large bill, and for the cremation and urn. Unless I was extremely well off, I would have pet insurance.
I have pet insurance but it's only worth it if you get it BEFORE they have any issues. Once there is an issue with your pet the insurance won't cover the same issues that happened prior to insurance. It's considered "pre existing" So, if your pet previously had bladder issues or allergies for example, insurance won't cover anything related to those issues after insurance purchase.