Concerns About Which Pet Health Insurance Policy?

Are you struggling to find just the right pet health insurance for your dog or cat? Do you find it confusing trying to compare the different offerings out there? I can tell you that it's like comparing apples to log cabins sometimes and yet... it's not.

Kind of an ambiguous statement isn't it?

The biggest problem I had when trying to compare various pet health insurance companies was the “sameness” rather than the differences. However, there were several areas that I had to become familiar with when attempting to find the best policy for my dog.

Per incident/category: Per incident would be, for example, a bout with a kidney infection. Per category, for example, would be anything to do with the urinary tract or the kidneys. So a pet health insurance policy that has a “per incident” limit wold conceivably pay out the policy limit on your cats kidney infection. However, the same policy that carries a per incident, might also carry a “per category limit”. What this means that if you reach the category limit with one kidney infection, then there will be no more payouts – for THE LIFE of the cat.

In all of my research, I found only one pet health insurance company that had neither a per incident or a per category limit!

Another option I had trouble with was the various “Wellness Plans” available with pet health insurance policies. Typically, a wellness plan will include coverage for annual vet visits, vaccinations, deworming and spaying and neutering. My favorite three came out as follows:

Plan 1: This Wellness Plan has a $150/year plan (no deductible) and includes spaying/neutering, vaccinations, annual physical, heartworm testing and teeth cleaning.

Plan 2: This Wellness Plan has a $480 yearly limit (no deductible) with set limits on everything listed in Plan 1 plus the following: blood testing, fecal testing, urine testing and flea andtick prevention.

Plan 3: This Wellness Plan has a yearly limit of $200 and allows the pet owner to choose to disburse these funds in any combination they and their vet see fit. The allowable categories include those is Plan 2 as well as the ability to use a wellness waiver for orthopedic consultations and microchipping.

As you can see, while all of the pet health insurance plans cover the same “ground” the methods that they use are all different. These differences are what contribute to the cost of the pet insurance policy as well as the confusion among many potential customers. It IS the same as with human health insurance!