RFI, pet insurance?

[Totem Polar]

Per the title: who here carries pet insurance—in particular on fido. Pros/cons/experiences? Recommendations? Lots of options for our new furry friend on the internet, I’m hoping the P-F hive can narrow down the choices a bit. Thanks in advance, gang!

[Crazy Dane]

I'm going to have to say it depends on what breed fido is and what environment it lives in. If fido's breed has known health problems or lives somewhere that has a high probability of accidents, you may come out ahead. Relatively healthy couch potatoes like I have you may pay more for the plan than you get out.

We tried pet insurance* when we had 3 Great Danes and the year we carried it we paid out more for the insurance than what we would have spent out of pocket without it. The cost for giant breeds is/was pretty high up there on premiums. Talking with the Vet we had been with for 30+ years, she recommended us to open a Care Credit account so we didn't have to pay any out of pocket unless it was needed. I want to say ours has 6 months no interest it may be a full year. It has worked well for us through the years. https://www.carecredit.com/

* It has been almost 10 years since we had pet insurance and I don't know if the cost of the policies has come down for giant breeds any.

For reference, the yearly checkup for our 2 Danes 2 weeks ago was right at $1000. I just paid half today and I'll get the next half next month.

[4RNR]

I just cancelled Progressive Pet Ins 2 weeks ago. My dog is a relatively healthy 13 year old mutt. He resembles a rat terrier. The worst thing he's ever had was an eye infection in 2019 and an allergic reaction to something back in 2015ish where he wouldnt stop licking his paws. That worked its self out.
When I first got the insurance in 2012 it was only like $50/mo or so and each vet visit it would pay back roughly 35% - 45% so it wasnt bad. I paid about $500 a year, got back a good portion of the vet bill and still had insurance incase something really serious happened. Today that same insurance is $1670/yr. If I got to the vet as normal I spend half of that in a year. Every visit between $200 and $400 and I do 2-3 of them. No point in paying $1670 + 60% of the vet bill when I can just pay the full amount and still be ahead. Now, before I cancelled I had called and spoke to the vet about worst case scenario prices and they assured me they rarely see anything over $3k.

My sister had the same insurance and just did the same thing. Her dog is a 15 year old relatively healthy mutt that looks like an orange American Eskimo dog. I originally go the insurance because of her. I think she started paying like $40 back in 2010. Today they're charging her $193/mo ($2300/yr)

[Harry Flashman]

We have used Embrace for over 10 years. We have had Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs, Bernese Mountain Dog and Anatolian Shepards. All big dogs with big vet bills. It has been expensive, but it has saved us money over the years.

Make sure you get it when the dog is a young puppy. If not, some of your claims may be denied for pre-existing conditions. Like any insurance, if you make claims it will go up. But, they generally cover 80% for our vet bills. When you are in the vets and they want to run some tests, taking 80% of the quote makes me feel better. We lay the money out then fax the claim and receipt in then the checks come pretty quick.

So we are big fans. I have no doubt like everything it is company specific, but we have been happy with Embrace

Also, another vote for Care Credit. This card is usually taken at the vets. Also, it works for my dentists.

Using Care Credit and Embrace means my dogs sometimes get better than what I get at the VA. Kidding of course.

[Kirk]

We have 5 pets (3 dogs, 2 cats), and we’ve used Lemonade. Super easy to sign up and submit claims, they always approved our claims without a hassle (make sure you read the policy info of course), and they get the money to you pretty quick. We decided to cancel our policies last year because our pets stay inside and spend their days lazing on our couch, but I still think Lemonade is a solid insurer.

A Care Credit + Lemonade (or similar) combo would basically cover your bases I think. Care Credit up front, then Lemonade for reimbursement. Likely wouldn’t even have to pay a single interest payment through Care Credit based on how quickly Lemonade approved/paid our 3 claims.

[Duelist]

The pet insurance math never worked for me.

I do not currently have any dog, but have had three as an adult. When I have a dog, I try to have $1000-$1500 in a dedicated savings account year-round for their medical care. Spend some, top it back up. Something major happens, that money goes first (and usually covers it). If they are over 10 years old, bump that sum up a bit. If you spend it, you spent it and that was what it was for. If you don’t spend it, you still have it even after the dog passes.

I try to do the same with auto care and my own health care, but for our own health care, it’s an HSA (+ insurance for the human family members). If I could, I’d have my Fido money in an HSA, too. I like the idea of having Care Credit to use for Fido care instead of insurance - legit way to get set up, in my head.

My thinking is, I love my dog, I know I’m going to predictably have some medical expenses, and I don’t want it to hurt on my budget when I have to spend that money. Insurance doesn’t make me happy as part of that plan because you can’t reliably predict the total, but it seems like you will usually end up spending more for the insurance over the life of the dog than the cost of any treatment I’m willing to put a dog through, or willing to pay for. I’m not going to torture the dog with expensive medical procedures to hopefully keep it alive a little longer, and I’m not going to spend heroic amounts of money to keep it alive or to repair catastrophic damage. One of the responsibilities I see as a pet owner is to provide it with medical care to keep it healthy, but if the pain/suffering/outcomes/cost equation doesn’t add up, I’m not down with that. When it’s time, it’s time, and that bit is predictable as well. I once spent $1500 for an emergency hysterectomy (spay) on an 8 year old Brittany - the uterus was badly infected and full of pus and it was killing her. When she was almost 14, she started having renal failure. We treated her with appetite increasing meds, nausea suppressing meds, and pain meds. When she stopped eating and couldn’t keep her pain meds down, we called it a wonderful life and had her last vet appointment.

I’m just about ready to finally look at puppies again, but Mrs. Duelist isn’t.

[Wake27]

We have used Embrace for over 10 years. We have had Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs, Bernese Mountain Dog and Anatolian Shepards. All big dogs with big vet bills. It has been expensive, but it has saved us money over the years.

Make sure you get it when the dog is a young puppy. If not, some of your claims may be denied for pre-existing conditions. Like any insurance, if you make claims it will go up. But, they generally cover 80% for our vet bills. When you are in the vets and they want to run some tests, taking 80% of the quote makes me feel better. We lay the money out then fax the claim and receipt in then the checks come pretty quick.

So we are big fans. I have no doubt like everything it is company specific, but we have been happy with Embrace

Also, another vote for Care Credit. This card is usually taken at the vets. Also, it works for my dentists.

Using Care Credit and Embrace means my dogs sometimes get better than what I get at the VA. Kidding of course.

I've had Embrace as well for a few years now, mainly went with them because they work through my main bank (USAA). Kind of a long story that I don't want to get too far into, but we got it after losing our first dog. My wife and I are the type of people that will do just about anything for our dogs. If you're the same way, I think insurance makes sense. We spent a lot of money on chemo out of pocket, like a lot. It took us years to come back from that. I got insurance on our second dog pretty quick afterward, and unfortunately, we had to use it for him too.

The difference in piece of mind alone was tremendous when you start talking about overnight emergency stays and diagnosing and all of that, and it covered a ton of the actual cost so it was obviously more than just piece of mind. Our third (golden/berner mix) and fourth (golden) dogs are on Embrace as well. I can easily adjust coverage by moving any of the three sliding scales and just take a photo of an invoice to submit through the app. They usually process the claim within 24 hours and pay quickly as well. Echoing to do it early though - yes, you're paying when they're young and hopefully healthy but the stuff that gets real expensive is the stuff you never see coming.

I lost my first two dogs before either turned seven. One from a long, drawn out battle with lymphoma (over a year) and the other from a very sudden hemangiosarcoma (three days). Its a small thing but both times we've submitted the final claim, they've been extremely nice about it, to the point of even mailing us a card. One was a golden mix and the other was pure golden so we thought we'd have at least three or four more years with them, my parents had one that lived until 18, but it just wasn't our luck with either.

[Elwin]

We have a Trupanion policy for both of our dogs - a 100lb Golden and a 70lb Pyrenees mix that likes getting into trouble. The Golden just tore his CCL (which is one of the main things we got the insurance for) so we’ll be using the policy this year to cover that surgery.

My experience with dogs when I lived with my parents was that it wasn’t uncommon for an active dog to end up needing a surgery costing $3000 or (much) more. I’d rather spread that cost out by paying the small premiums so I don’t end up with finances vs. furry friend decisions that suck.

I’ll try to remember to report back after we’re done getting this surgery covered.

[RocPO]

I have a White German Shepherd. Never knew they existed until I got an email from a local rescue about her after my sheppy/rotty mix passed (RIP Kota).

Unbeknownst to me, white dogs tend to have allergy issues. Savannah has had hot spots/allergies since I got her almost 10 years ago. After years of issues (including seeing a couple Veterinarians, an allergy specialist etc.) it's been determined that she has an allergy to grass (Especially the pollen).

She's cost me an arm and a leg between the medical diets, the vet visits, the cytopoint shots, allergy meds etc. I wish I had at least gotten the insurance at the beginning to see if it was worthwhile. I've heard good things about truepanion but I'll have to wait as this will all be considered "pre-existing"

[okie john]

Another vote for Embrace. We haven't needed it yet which I think is mostly luck.

I don't look at cost on a day-to-day basis. The policy protects us from having to write huge checks on short notice for catastrophic issues.

A neighbor who does not have pet insurance has already spent $15-20k fixing problems with his dog that Embrace would have covered. That's over a decade of premiums right there.


Okie John