Pet health insurance

Earlier this year I emptied Archie, Lydia, & Tequila's piggy bank and counted the $800 in coins I'd saved up for pet health emergencies. I thought about it briefly and realized that money would be gone in an instant if something major happened to any one of them. So, instead of continuing to squirrel away all that change 'just in case' I sunk it into health insurance policies for all three of them.

I did quite a bit of research before deciding on Petplan for Lydia & Tequila and Pets Best for Archie. I would have liked to get Archie on Petplan but they don't write new policies for dogs over 8 years old. Archie turned 10 in June. My thinking was to get them on insurance before anything serious ever happened. And since they've all been pretty healthy (with the exception of bladder infections for Lydia & Tequila, and Lydia's hip dysplasia), I thought for sure they wouldn't need health insurance any time soon.

I was so wrong!

Since Lydia's cancer diagnosis just a couple weeks ago, my charge card has been getting a workout at the vets' offices. Here's a quick rundown of the charges so far:

$684.64 - Initial surgery to remove one anal gland, and two small tumors.
$69.10 - An ER visit a couple days after surgery to get better pain meds.
$684.25 - Initial visit to the oncologist. This includes the exam, x-rays, blood work, and ultrasound
$720.15 - Second oncologist visit for a procedure to get some cell samples from a lymph node, more blood work, and her first round of chemo.

That’s a grand total of $2158.14 - and we've just started!

Each chemo treatment is $452, and she's scheduled for four of them. That doesn't include the follow up ultrasound that she needs in a couple weeks. It also doesn't include anti-nausea meds, which we're going to start with the next chemo treatment.

The way the insurance works is that I pay the bill and I'm reimbursed at 90% for visits with her primary veterinarian (minus an initial $200 deductible) and 70% for specialist visits (her oncologist). So, out of that $2158.14, I'm responsible for $696.69.
Lydia's health insurance is roughly $20 a month. I've paid that for 6 months so far…a $120 investment in her health insurance. That, combined with the $696 I've spent on vet bills is $816, which has saved me $1342…so far.

I just received insurance checks from Petplan today. It didn't take them very long at all to process the claims. I submitted the first one on July 10, another one on July 14 and yet another just last Wed. All three claims have been processed and the money is in the bank. I imagine all of her future claims will be paid just as quickly. And, in addition to processing claims quickly, the people I've talked to in the Petplan office are always pleasant and seem to genuinely care about the health of my pets. They've made the insurance part of this ordeal pretty easy.

The bottom line for me is that because I have pet health insurance, I can concentrate on taking care of Lydia and not worry so much about the bills. Of course I'm going to run up more bills than I'd like to, but taking care of her is my priority right now. And although I've lost sleep over Lydia's health, I haven't lost sleep over the bills. Having pet health insurance is definitely helping me keep my sanity!

Transfered from The PetsitUSA.com Blog