|
Owning a pet is a lifetime commitment. In the same way that our life span is increasing due to medical advances, domestic animals are living longer. Dogs regularly reach ages of 15 or 16 and cats have been known to live for over a ¼ of a century. When you buy your cute fluffy bundle it can be difficult to comprehend the commitment involved.
Caring for your family pet not only requires a vast amount of time and energy but has a financial aspect too.
Ask anyone who has owned a pet for over 10 yrs to add up the costs involved since puppy or kitten hood and I suspect a stiff drink would be in order.
Obviously there are the feeding, vaccination and neutering costs. Regular worming and flea control can be added to the list as well but these are all EXPECTED costs, and as such can be planned and budgeted for.
Insuring your pet's health care makes sense. What happens when your cat is involved in a road traffic accident or your dog swallows a stone that has to be surgically removed. These are some of the cases, which we see daily. It can be traumatic enough to have to go through these circumstances without the worry of a vet bill on top.
As Veterinary science becomes more advanced with breakthroughs in surgery and medicine the cost of owning an animal can potentially increase. There is no NHS for pets and if your pet is ill extensive diagnostic tests, surgery medication and care can mean an unexpected shock to your budget, and studies have shown that an average of 1 in 3 animals will require extensive veterinary treatment each year..
Pet insurance can cover most of these bills allowing you to concentrate on your pet's recovery.
There are many policies available but we recommend that you make sure you go with a policy that has cover for life. This means that providing your pet hasn't had treatment for the condition before, they will pay the vets bills until you reach your limit, whether this takes 1 yr or 10 yrs. Some companies will only cover a condition for 1 year and then will place an exclusion, which means you cannot claim for that condition again. Obviously in the case of ongoing skin problems etc this is less than ideal.
When you investigate pet insurance you might think it is an unnecessary expense but Consider the peace of mind you will have if your pet ever becomes ill. Most have a range of payment plans ranging from 'budget to gold standard' so look at each policy carefully.
Hopefully you will never need regular Veterinary treatment for their pets but, if you do at least you will have the peace of mind that one aspect of you pets recovery is taken care of.
 
 
As a caring pet owner you wish to do the very best for your pet and to help you achieve that you are thinking about pet insurance. This should help you in the unfortunate circumstance of your pet being ill and provide you with peace of mind. But will it?
Recently we have had a number of clients who having their pet insured have assumed all treatment fees will be covered (less the standard excess). Unfortunately this is not the case. There is a great difference in the level of cover companies provide and their terms and conditions should be read with a small tooth comb before embarking with any policy. Here are a few points to consider.
The policy may be time limited, for instance it will pay out for a condition for the first 12 months, from the onset of the condition and then exclude any further treatment for that or related conditions. This will mean that any ongoing problems are only covered for a maximum of 12 months. Many problems such as, heart conditions or severe arthritis can mean long-term treatment. These exclusions may be unspecific and wide ranging which would mean that if similar unrelated conditions were to occur they might also fall under the terms of the exclusion.
The other way cheap policies limit their risk is to pay only up to a pre-set sum of money per condition before placing an exclusion on your policy for that condition.
Many of these policies will not pay for certain aspects of your animal's treatment. Prescription diet foods are now widely used to treat a variety of clinical conditions. Physiotherapy and hydrotherapy are now frequently used to help treat animals and many policies will not pay for these important and expensive aspects of your animals care.
Some policies will even refuse to go on covering your pet into old age despite the fact that he/she has been insured with them for some years.
|
Pet Insurance 
