Bosley and Hannah are 11 months old and I have t decided if I should invest in medical insurance for them. Their first few months were somewhat expensive, had some emergency trips to their doctors due to stomach issues with Hannah. Now that they go less often I'm torn if it pays and would appreciate anyone's advice.
It depends on how willing you are to take a risk - the risk being that something major will happen that you can't afford to treat. If you can afford the occasional $1000 vet bill and are prepared to foot one $10 000 vet bill if you absolutely have to (very unlikely, but still possible) then you can probably live without the insurance. Before buying insurance read the Product Disclosure statements of the insurers you're considering, cover to cover. Some of them are not worth it when you actually see what they do and don't cover or will or won't pay up for.
I don't have pet insurance for my two, because it's not available in the country I live, otherwise I would definitely have it for peace of mind. However, I've read plenty of horror stories of people who have paid out loads in premiums believing they were fully covered against every eventuality and yet found they weren't when it came to making a claim. So, I advise you to read the policy documents for any product you buy very carefully. Insurance is a business and so they will have it skewed to make more money than they pay out, so over the whole of the population, I'd have to say that, no, it's not economical. However, peace of mind is an important thing and I'd be willing to pay for that. As it is, I have a fund that would be used in the case of emergencies. I think you have to consider that Labradors are big and bouncy, so probably far more likely to have accidents than other, more laid-back, breeds. Also consider that anything related, even vaguely, to anything you have already visited the vet about, probably won't be covered going forwards. So you might find that Hannah will never be covered for any stomach problems, whether or not they stem from the issues she's had previously.
It really is such a personal decision based on your financial situation and your view about treating your dogs. I can afford the odd bits here and there but a very costly medical issue would be tricky. So my old Malamute is not insured anymore. If he got really unwell or injured we would treat him conservatively as that would be kindest for him. I cam fund that. Meg however is full of energy. She has huge potential for accident, injury or hip/joint issues I don't know about. She could easily stack up a good few thousand pounds on a single issue. I would not want to be in a position where I could not treat such issues. So she is insured. I guess you also have to weigh up the fact Hannah probably won't get cover for her tummy issues. Good luck deciding Emma and Meg age 2.
You do need to check the exclusions on any policy, as previously said anything relating to stomach upsets with Hannah could well be excluded as a pre-existing condition. Insurers do vary though and some will insure a conditions as long as there has been no treatment for 2 clear years.
Didn't see this topic.... I wrote in another topic this: We decided to have no insurance. Most of the insurance companies don't cover the vet expenses. We pay a lot every month to find out that afterwards you have to pay most of the vets costs. There are a lot of insurance companies where we can turn to in holland. Even at the HEMA. We said to ourselves it is better to put some money aside each month, so that we have saved a little just in case. We ended up with our Euan with a lot of expenses. He had to have a MRI, operation an hospitalization over a weekend. Costs:€4.000,- Do we regret not having him insured? No, we regret having him had the operation. After that operation he was never without pain. Had to have pain medication quite severe. Pain medication was not under insurance. I don't know what is the right thing to do. Our little Finn still isn't insured. We asked our vet what to do. She told us to get insurance but when I asked her if she had an insurance for her dogs she responded negative, and I know one of her dogs has an severe heart condition and needed operation at the same clinic Euan was operated.... Annemarie
