advice for pet health insurance

[Guest guest]

Hi--

 

Does anyone have any experiences to share (good or bad) with pet health

insurance? I'm trying to choose between ASPCA, PetsBest, & VPI among

others.

 

--Zack

_

Zack Subin

PhD Student, UC Berkeley Energy & Resources Group

subin / subin / zack.subin

[Guest guest]

Zack,

 

I don't have any experience with pet insurance, but I thought I'd share this

Feb. 2006 article from Consumer Reports:

 

SKIP PET INSURANCE

 

Unless you can't resist a breed with chronic problems, pet insurance will

probably cost you more money than it will save you. As with human health

insurance, you'll pay deductibles, co-pays, and premiums, and you may bump up

against lifetime payment ceilings if you own a chronically ill pet. In addition,

you might find some needed treatments are excluded from coverage. Some policies

also limit the amount they will pay per incident and may make you pay higher

co-pays as your pet ages. For example, with PetCare's QuickCare Gold policy for

dogs, you could pay $36 monthly premiums for coverage for a 3-month-old bearded

collie. If that pooch needs $3,000 pacemaker surgery next year, you'll have to

pay a $50 deductible, after which the plan pays 100 percent (up to a limit of

$3,000) of your costs. Not a bad deal, because you will have paid just more than

$430 in premiums. But if the surgery occurs after that dog turns 8 years old,

the plan will only pay 80 percent of your costs and you'll be out about $3,500

in premiums. If you want to set aside money for future medical bills, you might

do better by putting the amount you'd pay in premiums into a savings account.