Comments on: Pet health insurance: Does it ‘pencil out’ for love or money?

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:24:04 +0000

Gina - I have ASPCA pet insurance for my 13.5 year old cat. Over the holidays, she became really sick and we found out through xrays and test that she had a tumor. I incurred about $4k in bills for the hospital stay and treatment which I’ve submitted to ASPCA. My vet told me today that they called her to ask for all the records and other details - I’m sure that since this is a big bill, it’s been flagged and they’re going to try to find a way to either not pay for it or pay for little of it. My cat did not have a pre-existing condition that we knew of when we got the insurance 2 years ago. I’m am skeptical because for any past vet appointments, they have always found ways to not pay me the full amount, like by saying the bills were more than the averages in my area. However, they’ve given me the same excuse when I lived in other cities, so anyway, I would not be surprised if they are trying to find ways to not pay for this big bill.

This insurance costs me over $700 per year which I pay upfront, so it’s not cheap. I choose ASPCA because they seemed to have more comprehensive coverage, even though they were more expensive. I have the Premier Plan. Here a question: my cat died last week. ASPCA does not know this yet as I haven’t informed them. But would it make a difference if they knew regarding reimbursing me for the $4k previous bill? Would they be more likely to reimburse me if they thought, “Hey, the cat is gone, we won’t have to pay for anything in the future.” Or would they be more like, “The cat is gone, why should we bother trying to cover for a dead cat?”

Thanks,
Maria

By: JuliaMartin

JuliaMartin — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:28:08 +0000

That various factions of the pet industry use this, and other, forums to deceive and do “ham fisted marketing” is about what can be expected now.
This post on itchmo forums shows how a poster on many pet forums was actually working for a pet food company, it really is pathetic.
Shills, spies and liars, oh my!

Posted by Menusux on this thread
http://itchmoforums.com/news-r.....4.300.html

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:17:58 +0000

We have had nothing but trouble with Trupanion reps passing themselves off as “customers making an endorsement.”

Christie removed yet another such comment this morning. This, after we asked many times privately and publicly for this crap to stop.

At this point, I think you can believe with a pretty good chance of likelihood that any endorsement you find on the Internet from a “happy Trupanion customer” is a ham-fisted effort at marketing from one of this company’s reps. We are removing every such misrepresentation we find.

Let that factor into your decision-making process.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:45:08 +0000

Again … Trupanion folks. Knock it off. You’re not adding to the discussion. You’re shilling.

If you have something to add besides the name of your product, please do. Otherwise, your comments are getting deleted.

Last warning on this. I am done asking for your cooperation.

By: jflare

jflare — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:35:41 +0000

Dr. K,
I am a private business partner who has chosen to team with Trupanion Pet Insurance. Your insights on the issues related to insuring pets will provide needed clarification to pet owners. Thanks for your work on behalf of these pets!

By: Dr. K

Dr. K — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:54:45 +0000

I first intended to self-publish, but I sent it to a traditonal publisher first. Althought the manuscript is completed, it may be a couple of months or more before it is actually published. In reading this blog and reviews, I think it will be helpful in understanding pet health insurance. But, that’s only Part 2 of the book. Part 1 will literally save pet owners thousands of dollars on their pet’s healthcare if they will heed the advice given.
Thanks

By: Melissa at Trupanion

Melissa at Trupanion — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:45:07 +0000

Hey Dr. K,

I think that’s so great that you would take the time to research pet insurance yourself and write about it. When do you think we can expect your book to hit the shelves?

By: Dr. K

Dr. K — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:06:19 +0000

Liz, I would never fault anyone for opting for a higher deductible in order to lower the premium. That’s what I’ve had to do over the years with my own family health insurance and what we’ve done with our auto insurance since I at one time had 6 cars (my wife and I and 4 kids that drove, had jobs, etc.) For someone like yourself that is knowledgable about insurance and knows that they are taking on more responsibility and mainly interested in coverage for very large bills, that’s great. I just hope that someone not so knowledgable will opt for a lower premium and not understand this.
Of course, if the out-of-pocket expense is close when comparing a lower and higher deductible, you’ll come out better with the higher deductible (assuming there is a significant difference in premium) if your pet stays healthy. That’s why when contemplating which plan to get, I recommend plugging in different possible invoice amounts and seeing what the out-of-pocket with each eg. $250/yr vs. $5000/yr and all in between too. For some people it may be easier to pay the higher monthly premium than to save up a significant emergency fund.
You are correct that there is significant variation in premiums from company to company for seemingly similar coverage, but often there are differences like one may cover hereditary conditons or chronic conditions and the other won’t as well as one may have annual deductibles and the other per-incident deductibles.
When a person has a negative experience with pet health insurance, most of the time - they either don’t fully understand it, didn’t research enough before buying a policy, or in the past didn’t have the choices they have today with the newer companies.
Pets Best does have a list I think of hereditary conditions they don’t cover, so if it isn’t on the list they will cover it. It is a limited list compared to some of the other companies. Some of the companies will also cover congenital conditions (meaning born with it, which can be different from hereditary) if it isn’t known about before the policy is purchased and the waiting period is up.
For example, if a client brings in a new puppy for it’s first visit and I hear a congenital heart murmur and then they purchase a policy the next week. That won’t be covered. But, if a client brings in a puppy and everything looks fine and they purchase a policy and at 4 months old the puppy starts acting lethargic, drunk, seizures, etc. and a liver shunt is diagnosed, that would be covered because symptoms didn’t manifest until after the policy was purchased and it wasn’t diagnosed til later.
All of this to say, regardless of how knowledgable you are about insurance, research-research-research.
I am just finished writing a book on “How To Save Money On Your Pet’s Healthcare (just sent it to a publisher yesterday for review) and it has a whole section on pet health insurance. I spent countless hours on the phone, e-mails, looking a websites, etc. to learn information I needed to write the book. The book has charts showing which companies cover wellness, hereditary, chronic diseases,etc. It has worksheets to help pet owners narrow down their choices to one company and then a worksheet to calculate which plan offers the least out-of-pocket costs.
I sent in claims to all the companies and over half of them sent me a benefit statement on how they would have paid on the claim. I learned a lot by doing this — things I didn’t learn from visiting their website or by phone calls, e-mails, etc.
I do not, however, recommend one company over another. That decision is up to the pet owner. I simple give them the information to make an informed decision.

By: Lis

Lis — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:17:00 +0000

If Pets Best’s $75 deductible plan is also the one that offers the best payouts/least out-of-pocket expenses, it’s not telling them anything about whether people would choose a higher-deductible plan if it offered lower, rather than higher, out-of-pocket expenses, or no worse, with a lower premium.

Pets’ Best also excludes “congenital” conditions, including specifically luxating patellas, which don’t necessarily present when the dog is a pup and new to your home and you’re looking for health insurance. Likely they’d take the same position on PRA or lens luxation. Since even the best, most careful breeding practices can’t guarantee that these things won’t happen, it’s a bit much to exclude coverage for them when they present in a previously healthy animal. Or rather, it’s just another example of the fact that the entire business model of insurance is built on collecting the premiums, but not paying out the benefits if at all avoidable.

Pets First ($75-deductible plan): $415.68. This plan offers almost as good coverage as the Embrace plan I bought, but of course excludes congenital conditions (which I hope Addy will never develop, but if she does, I want to be able to treat them.) It also costs almost twice what the Embrace plan costs.

Pets Basic ($100 deductible, significantly less coverage): $269.40. With less coverage, it still costs about $50 more per year.

They’ve also got a significantly lower customer satisfaction rating on the pet insurance review website, although obviously that’s not totally reliable because the reviewers are self-selected from the customers of any of the companies who happen to find their way there.

I’ll stick with my position, that I’ll take a higher deductible in exchange for either higher coverage limits and payouts, or lower premiums.

By: Dr. K

Dr. K — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:43:05 +0000

Liz and others,
AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) recently came out with a program to “certify” plans (not companies) that offer a high deductible policy eg. $1000 in an effort to have some policies that are more affordable. I think Embrace offers the highest deductible available now at $500. I talked with Dr. Jack Stephens (who started VPI in 1982 and now heads up Pets Best) and he said it was something they would probably look at, but by far their most popular plan with pet owners is the $75 deductible, so he isn’t convinced there is a big market for it.
The question is this: Will a higher deductible give you the least out-of-pocket (including premium) cost? It won’t always. Pets Best $75 deductible actually gives the least out-of-pocket cost of all their 3 plans.
The only accurate way to compare out-of-pocket cost among companies is to compare the companies that pay according to the veterinarian’s invoice. You have to assume also that all procedures on the invoice are covered. If a company uses a benefit scedule (VPI) or a fee schedule (ASPCA and others), there may be some limitations to the amounts the company will pay for certain procedures and medications.