Most people adore their pets, and would spend significant funds to keep them healthy. Millennials are adopting at high rates and tend to spend more on their pets than boomers. As a millennial dog owner myself, I can relate. Research shows we are more likely to buy organic food, celebrate birthdays, and use doggy daycare. Health insurance is part of overall wellness care.
Peace of Mind
Insurance for a pet provides peace of mind, as it does for every other member of the family. Let’s take the family dog Fluffy as an example. In Fluffy’s long and mischievous lifetime he is likely to eat a bar of chocolate, tear his ACL, get attacked at the dog park, contract heartworm, or need a tumor removed. All of these incidents will be covered with most accident and illness pet insurance plans. Without insurance, one emergency incident could cost you the equivalent of all premium payments over the life of your dog—out of pocket.
If you are rescuing or homing a stray, it is particularly crucial to get pet insurance from day one. Risk of illness goes up when you don’t know the animal’s medical history, the environment they were living in, or if they had exposure to sick animals. Most pet insurance companies have a 14 day waiting period from the date of insurance. After that window you are covered for any new conditions or incidents that present themselves. So the longer you wait, the higher the risk for lack of coverage.
Cost Analysis
The average monthly cost will be greater for a dog than a cat. Cats are usually exclusively indoor pets which reduces their exposure to risk. A larger or older animal will cost more to insure. The average cost of insuring a dog is about $40 a month. $40 * 12 = 480. Let’s say your plan also has a 500 deductible= $980 a year. $980 * 10 year life of a dog =$9,800. This is a conservative scenario in which we assume you will be hitting your deductible every year. You can also save money by opting for the annual payment schedule rather than monthly payments. One or two serious incidents would cause you to break even on the $9,800. I like to look at the long-term payoff versus any given year.
Insurance also allows you to manage your cash flow properly and make health care costs for your pet part of your budget rather than an unexpected and stressful hit. Cashflow management is a wonderful benefit of pet insurance.
What Type of Insurance Should You Get?
When you include wellness care such as physicals, and vaccines, insurance becomes much less affordable. I would recommend paying out of pocket for wellness, and only cover accidents and illnesses. Of course if your pet has reoccurring needs that are not part of a such a plan, such as allergy shots, wellness and routine coverage makes sense. It is important to note preexisting conditions are not covered by any pet plan insurer, and each insurer will have their own definition.
My Story
We rescued our two-year old Labrador Retriever Oliver. He was given a clean bill of health the day we adopted him. We got insurance on day 1. On day 2 he came down with kennel cough, which was not covered because we were in the 14 day window. Within the first two years he needed surgery for a tumor removal, treatment for heartworm, an eye infection, ear infection, and a UTI. Pet’s Best made filing claims easy. We got more back in reimbursements than we will pay in premiums for the remainder of Oliver’s life. Not every dog has all these things occur in one year, so it can take longer to break even with your reimbursements.