By: Kelly Marshall
Submitted: 2009-08-17 13:46:28 | Word Count: 524
In a time when healthcare costs are on the rise for both you and your pet, it’s no wonder that more and more pet owners are considering the purchase of insurance to cover any catastrophic bills that might arise. It’s so much on the mind of the American consumer that one major insurance company is offering pet coverage to anyone buying car or house insurance from them.
If you are considering purchasing health insurance for your pet, there are several points to keep in mind:
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When purchasing insurance, try to get your pet under a policy at as young an age as possible. As pet ages, the premiums could very well increase in cost along with the likelihood of your pet developing more serious medical conditions. Should your pet develop a long term health issue like a thyroid problem, for example, your pet won t be eligible to qualify for coverage under many insurance programs, which could insist the pet is suffering from what would be seen as a pre existing condition. If you stick with one slightly more expensive quality program, though, you ll probably be just fine.
When you purchase a pet type insurance policy, remember that you get what you pay for. Like with many policies written to cover a human, you are likely to encounter restrictions and limits on just what is covered by the policy for how long. For example, the cheaper plans can lead to the likelihood unhappy coverage surprises happen. Let s look at the situation here hypothetically speaking you are the owner of two Chihuahuas, both of which are covered by an inexpensive plan. Sadly one falls and breaks his leg and needs several surgeries to correct the injury, costing two thousand dollars altogether.
You might believe that your inexpensive plan, which happily, covers $2,000 of expenses, will handle everything. When you turn in your claim, you suddenly discover that $2000 is the maximum coverage paid out for both dogs, and your Chihuahua is only eligible for half that amount. Even worse, but a very common limiting clause, is a lower limit per incident. In this case, Low Cost Pet Plan A will undoubtedly respond that it only covers just $500 for this incident, but if your poor Chihuahua breaks his leg three more times during this coverage year, they ll be happy to offer help then. This leaves you liable for the balance of what the surgeries cost.
Facing facts like these, many people question the need to buy pet insurance in the first place. If you don’t have a credit card that you can rely on for catastrophic veterinary bills, then a good quality pet insurance might be a good choice for you. The policy can be used for just medical expenses, making it like a savings account set aside for just that purpose. There are very few owners that have the discipline required to set aside a savings account that would remain untouched unless there was a veterinary emergency, but most of us are quite used to keeping monthly premiums up to date along with any other monthly bills we need to pay.
