If you consider your four-legged friend to be part of the family, you are in good company. Approximately 47% of American households have a dog or cat, and many of them view their furry family members the same as their two-legged family members.
If this is you, healthcare for pets might keep you up at night. Even though even though your pet is just as important to you as any human child, your health insurance provider doesn’t cover their care. You might have heard of puppy health insurance, but aren’t sure how pet insurance works. There is a lot of information on pet insurance online, but as any subject on the internet, you’ll find a lot of conflicting info that makes it hard to trust. If you wish you had puppy health insurance but have been discouraged from buying it, make sure you aren’t stopping due to any of the following reasons:
Four Myths About Puppy Health Insurance
- MYTH: Having a pet health savings account provides the same thing, but you still have the money if your animal dies.
This argument might seem logical, but it really isn’t. Medical emergencies don’t occur when you are prepared for them, they happen when they happen. When you have puppy health insurance, for a monthly fee of somewhere in the neighborhood of $25, your pet-baby’s medical costs are covered, usually up to about $3,000. If you were putting the same amount into a saving’s account, it would take you about ten years to save up that amount of money. If you started your puppy health savings account the day Fido was born, he’d be 70 in dog years by the time you had adequate health savings set aside for medical emergencies. - MYTH: Your dog doesn’t qualify for pet insurance because he has a pre-existing condition.
It is true, that, as with human health insurance, most pet insurance providers do not cover health conditions the pet had before coverage began. However, to keep your animal in good health for as long as possible, there are many other treatments they may need, not related to their pre-existing health condition. And that’s way animal health insurance is good for. - MYTH: Your dog is too old for puppy health insurance.
The best day to get animal health insurance is today. Most pet insurance companies cover animals of any age, after they are eight weeks old. If you use a reputable pet insurance company for you animal’s care, they’re insurance will never be canceled. This means that, even though your fur-baby is already in his third act in life, his medical care will still be covered for his fourth and fifth act. Some pet insurance companies also offer life insurance benefits as well, so your pooch’s care is provided for after life, as well as it was during his glory days. - MYTH: Pet insurance isn’t a good use of money because there are too many exclusions.
Let’s get real for a second. If you found pet health insurance that covered every possible health anomaly that could ever arise with any animal, it would either cost too much to be practical, or the company would not stay in business for long enough to actually offer you any protection. However, a good pet health insurance company, who has a good reputation with other pet owners, will carefully identify the most valuable medical services to cover for your four-legged friend at the best cost to you. This is the point of pet insurance and the entire industry wouldn’t be as successful as it has been if it didn’t provide a valuable service to pet owners.
If your pet has an extreme one-in-a-million accident that no other dog has ever encountered, it may not be covered by their pup insurance. However, there is a good chance that the medical care your dog commonly needs as he ages will be covered. This gives you peace of mind that your furry pal will be in the best hands to be taken care of until he is grey and old. Unless he’s already grey, then you just want to see him grow old.
Does your pooch have pet health insurance? Tell us what you think about it in the comment section below.