Dr. Lera (from Heron Lakes Animal Hospital) explains why she recommends pet insurance, describes when it’s most useful (accidents and major surgeries rather than routine/preventative care), and gives personal examples and insurer recommendations. She advises purchasing coverage when pets are young to avoid pre-existing-condition exclusions. She reports a quoted surgery cost of $8,000–$14,000 for a possible slipped/bulging disc in her dog Ginger and that her policy covers 90% of that bill. She names Embrace, ASPCA, and Healthy Paws as recommended insurers and notes she personally uses Trupanion (for Ginger) and Nationwide’s Whole Pet with Wellness (for Ruby).
Questions this video answers
$8,000 to $14,000
90%
Embrace, ASPCA, and Healthy Paws
Trupanion (Ginger) and Nationwide's Whole Pet with Wellness (Ruby)
About $25 up to $100–$120 per month
Chapters
Hey guys, My name is Dr. Lara here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital. Today I'm talking about pet insurance and so whether to get it or not to get it and some of the pros and cons of pet insurance. So I'm going to be quick just so that I don't really bore you guys about this. Do I recommend pet insurance? Yes, I do recommend pet insurance. Even though I own my animal hospital, I actually have pet insurance for my own dogs. Ginger over here, the neurologist suspects that she has a bulging disc in her neck. So she's got a slip disc in her neck and if she does have to have surgery for that, I've been quoted anywhere between 8 to $14,000 for everything for that. The pet insurance that I have covers 90% of that bill. So that's something that's really, really important. And although I may get some sort of discount from the specialist, it's not going to be big enough for me not to want to have pet insurance. Okay, number two, the reason that normally you'll get pet insurance is for the accidents. It's not necessarily for the preventative care. Everyone gets so upset because they spend all this money on pet insurance and yet they never get reimbursed for anything because most of the time their pets are sick. One of the ways to increase the likelihood of you getting reimbursed with your pet insurance is getting pet insurance while they're young. It's important to get it while they're young because once they start developing potentially chronic conditions, then those conditions will be considered pre existing. In veterinary medicine, we do not have Obamacare. We do have pre existing conditions and therefore, depending on the insurance company, the conditions will either make them completely ineligible for coverage altogether or, or they just won't cover those particular areas. So if you want to get the most out of it, you got to get it while they're young. Okay. The other reason that usually I tell people to get pet insurance, they typically, people will usually say, well, if I, if I pay each month, whatever the premium is between, you know, 25, up to 100 or $120 a month over the life of the dog and, or if I don't do that, and then at the end I spend a big chunk when they get really sick, I end up spending the same amount of money. And I thought that was a valid point until I actually sat down and thought about it and said, okay, so if you're telling me you get a 10 year payment plan or you have to pay it all in a matter of two or three months. What am I going to choose? I'm going to choose that 10 year payment plan. Okay. The now the insurances that I recommend for people are going to be Embrace Pet Insurance, ASPCA Pet Insurance and Healthy Pods. Okay. Embrace is going to be really good for convenience. They also cover alternative medicine like platelet rich plasma and stem cell therapy. They're not awesome with periodontal disease coverage, but they're really good with everything else. Aspca, they just made an update to their plan and launched a new product where they're actually able to go ahead and offer excellent periodontal disease coverage. They do cover stem cells as well as PRP and other alternative medicine, so that's a good option as well. And then Healthy Paws is a really good option. It's number one rated by consumers. The catch with them is they have no periodontal disease coverage whatsoever and they do not go ahead and cover some of the more advanced procedures like stem cells or prp. So if those are some modalities of medicine that you are going to want available for you, Healthy Paws at this time is not willing to go ahead and cover that now. Their policy might change in the future, but. But as of right now, it's not available. If you guys have any other questions, I have Trupanion for Ginger and I have Nationwide's Whole Pet with Wellness for Ruby. These policies have changed over time and so therefore my recommendation has changed. If I go and try and switch Ginger off of Trupanion, her neck would be considered pre existing and she would not be eligible for coverage for it. The same thing with Ruby. She's got some stuff, some allergies potentially and I wouldn't want. She has food allergies and I wouldn't want that to be considered pre existing. So that's why I'm keeping her on Nationwide's Whole Pet With Wellness. If you guys have any other questions or concerns, please let me know. In another topic, I will tell you more about these particular insurances and why I'm shying away from them. Thanks a lot for watching and have a great day.
