A dollar value on your pet's life?
BY NICK BARNETTImagine this: your pet is run over, survives, but with broken bones. Your vet tells you the bones can be repaired - but it's a specialist job and the surgery will cost $1800. Do you say "yes, I'll pay it"? Or do you say goodbye to your pet?
It's a horrible situation. How much would you spend to save your pet's life? Five hundred dollars? Five thousand dollars? It's awful to think about. My partner and I have just taken out pet insurance policies because, I suppose, we don't want to have to make that calculation under pressure.
My partner chose our pet insurer and the plan, and today I'm about the mail off our first claim form. Our dog Phoebe had treatment from the local vet for tendonitis, and the total bill was $69. The insurance plan means we (should) get back 80 per cent of that figure, which is very much less than the biggest vet bill we've ever had.
Phoebe is covered by a plan for which we pay about $30 a month. Our other dog, Connor, is also on a plan, so it's $60 a month. Pre-existing conditions aren't covered.
So it costs about what we pay for our cable TV plan. Or about one-and-a-half times what I spend on L'affare coffee every month.
Would you pay that much? Or more? (Perhaps you already do.) Do you think it's worth it?
For that premium, we get some back of what we spend on our pets' treatment (and I'm sure I've spent more on vet bills in recent years than on my own doctor and dentist bills). And if it got to the point of dialysis or chemotherapy or complex surgery, we wouldn't be faced with an enormous wallop of spending.
But I have to say, if our pets were not insured, we'd pay those bills anyway, sure we would. The financial stress could well be real. I just cannot imagine choosing financial comfort over the life of one of my fur-kids.
But I wonder if I'd say the same thing if I were poor rather than middle class, or I or my partner were out of a job. There must be a lot of people facing this choice all the time. People for whom $30 a month is not an option.
Taking out pet insurance is still an unusual step. Consumer magazine, in a report not available free online, quotes a pet-insurance firm director as saying that only about 5 per cent of New Zealand pets are insured. This compares with a reported 1 per cent in Canada and 43 per cent in Sweden, said to be the world's highest rate.
But in New Zealand, several firms are competing for the pet insurance dollar. I've been looking at pet cover plans offered by one of them. It repays only 60 per cent of bills. If you keep up your payments, the cover will last for the lifetime of your pet, but there's a maximum "entry" age of 12 years for a cat or a dog, while for a list of "selected breeds" of dog it's eight years.
Those selected breeds include rarities such as Bouvier des Flandres and Leonberger, and more familiar types such as boxer and Staffordshire terrier. Besides the tighter age criterion, policies for those breeds also have higher premiums.
Surely this "selecting" of breeds must have something to do with risk? That is, that the selected breeds are at higher risk of injury, death or expensive treatment? Yet the list doesn't include what we often think of as high-risk breeds such as German shepherd and King Charles cavalier spaniel.
I'm not saying that it's unfair of an insurer to follow actuarial principles in setting rules and premiums for pet insurance. I just wonder how well established those principles are, by comparison to what's known about human life expectancy and risk factors.
Vet bills being what they are, and pets' popularity never waning even in a recession, I can see that pet insurance will become a bigger and bigger business.
It's even been advocated, on this blog, that pet insurance should be mandatory for pet owners, to make certain that animals are well cared for without becoming victims of household cost-cutting.
What do you think about pet insurance? If you've taken out policies for your pets, what experiences have you had with it? How do your plans compare with the ones I've mentioned?
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Hmmmm... wouldn't it be easier to set up a special savings account and put the $30.00 a month into that and then use that insurance policy to cover 100% of the cost of your vet bill?
Personally an $1800 vet bill would be too much. Love ya buddy but it's time for the final nigh'-nigh's if your treatment will cost that much in one shot.
I've had pet medical insurance for 15 years, with the same company. I would highly recommend it if you can afford it. It takes the pressure off of, 'will I or won't I take her to the vet'. You don't hesitate. I've never had any problems with refunds, other than sometimes it can take 3 weeks. I had no claims declined.
In my dogs later years, the cover wasn't enough for his arthritis treatment, [I could only claim the maximum a year, which with the cost of the drugs was used up in a matter of months] so I ended up cancelling the cover in his last year so that the money could go on his drugs.
I have just got another puppy and didn't hesitate in taking out the insurance again.
We have pet insurance for our two cats. It's so reassuring to know that if something should happen to them, we can just say yes to whatever needs doing without thinking about the cost. I'd be absolutely devastated to have to say goodbye when they can be saved. We pay about $30 a month for the two of them and like Laura, we both work and make good money so we don't notice it. We get 80% back and their vet visits and yearly boosters are also covered. Pets play a huge role in your life and I think they deserve the same level of care as we would give ourselves or other family members. Overall I think it is a great idea.
I don't have to imagine the initial scenario. Had exactly that happen. Cost was around $1200 all up. But it was never a question of cost. The only question was "what is his chance of survival?".
Since the injuries themselves were not life threatening (broken pelvis and jaw, lacerations) we could see no reason to end his life.
Haven't taken out pet insurance though.
I don't have insurance for my cat but I would still pay the vets bills if Holly got sick. She's my family and I would cover any costs to keep her with me. When you take on the responsibility of an animal you should reckon in on all extra costs. I don't think you should get a pet if you are not willing to pay for the vets bills and other costs that may pop up.
It depends. If my cat got run over tomorrow, I'd pay it. If it happened when he was nearing the end of his life, I think it'd probably be the final curtain for him :(
That pet insurance is more than I'm paying for health and life insurance combined, so I certainly wouldn't get that.
I've got two Greyhounds. We had our first for about 5 months when she had a tumor on her muscle removed (all good now), two and a half weeks later she cut her leg open on a branch very close to the just healed scar. $900 all up for both surgeries. Pretty penny. When we got our second Greyhound we decided to get Pet Insurrance for both of them. We get a special deal for retired hounds and pay for both of them $70 per months. Now our girl crushed one of her toes, which had to be amputated. Another $650 bill. We got 80% of that back. No questions asked. Our boy has a thyroid condition just diagnosed and will be covered as well. So yes, it is well worth it. I couldn't imagine loosing either one of them because I can't afford the bill. We're also incredibly lucky with our vet, who will allow us to pay the bill in installments, if we're a bit short one week.
@Meow Can you please tell me the provider? I have two cats and have been thinking of getting insurance for them. I would pay almost anything to keep them alive so I could possibly end up with a huge bill unless I have insurance!
Rather than medical insurance, we pay a fixed amount to the vet weekly. If either or our dogs was seriously injured, I think our decision wouldn't come down to money - rather, we'd look at the dogs quality of life after the surgery.
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We have pet insurance for both our dogs through Ellenco. It costs $40 per month total and we get back 70% of our vet bills plus subsidised yearly checkups and vaccinations. With our older dog we only had to visit the vet twice (an ear infection followed by a skin irritation) and it basically had paid for itself.
The way I look at it we pay for health insurance for ourselves so why not for the dogs - they are pretty much our children. That said tho we both work and earn good money so if it came down to it I would probably spend thousands to keep the dogs alive - as long as it meant they would have a good quality of life post surgery.