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Pet Insurance

Masha
January 21st, 2008, 05:23 PM
I am researching the available Pet Insurance providers in Canada and so far am leaning towards PurinaCare because the monthly premium is based on the amount of annual deductible that you choose at sign up. Its about 22/month if you choose a 1000 deductible. And, there is unlimited coverage on hereditery diseases as well (sounds like a good deal as most people get insurance for the really big expenses....)

Does anyone know if Hip Dysplasia is classified as a hereditary disease? I was originally planning on signing up with Vetinsurance but found out that they do not cover HD and since I have a GSD, this is one of my concerns for the future.

Please let me know what your experiences were with the above companies, or any of the other available ones in Canada... (if we cannot openly discuss the individual pet insurance companies, please PM me)

You feedback is very much appreciated!!

Masha
January 22nd, 2008, 10:17 PM
I am surprised no one has responded :confused: i think i have the only post with 0 replies :sad: I just wanted some feedback on your experiences before i commit to a company....

Is this the price i pay for not posting any pictures? :o

14+kitties
January 22nd, 2008, 11:30 PM
I know I didn't reply because I #1 - didn't see the post till now.
#2 - have not researched any insurance for pets.
I'm sure someone will answer your query soon.
But yep, pics would help. :D

rainbow
January 23rd, 2008, 02:15 AM
I just found this post too. I don't have pet insurance but wish I did as I could have saved over $10,000 last year. :wall:

Here are a couple of threads where pet insurance was discussed...

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=35934&highlight=pet+insurance

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=34223&highlight=pet+insurance

Kashi
January 23rd, 2008, 02:24 PM
I'm starting to research the different companies for pet insurance as well.

I've looked at PCfinancial, PetCare, and PurinaCare. So far, purina is winning out.

TKW
January 23rd, 2008, 07:05 PM
Looks like there're a few more players in the pet insurance game since I last checked. About 20 months ago, I did some shopping among Vet Insurance, Pet Care & Pet Plan and ended up with Pet Plan. The comparison was posted before.

Our experience with Pet Plan was mixed. When we first signed on, they'd exclude eye coverage b/c my dog had seen the vet once for teary eye (possibly infection or allergy). We've to ask them to review after 6 month to delete the exculsion. Their pay out in the 1st year was $1,600 with 20% co-insurance and the monthly premium was $33. And then they'd increase my co-insurance to 50% with a slight increase of premium to $36 (inflation adjustment). We're not too happy with that and tried to switch insurer. After 6 mo of claim free, the co-insurance is now at 40%.

IMHO, our annual coverage of $2k per decease probably won't be enough for anything serious. But it might smooth things out a little at misfortunate times.
BTW, you can get $4k coverage for a monthly premium of $50. It will come in handy when face with those $8-$10k vet bill which is not uncommon these day.

Masha
January 23rd, 2008, 07:18 PM
So far, purina is winning out.

My only concern with purina so far, is that they are so new in the insurance business (i read somewhere that they started in September of 2007) that they didn't yet get a chance to gain a good/bad reputation.

I hear lots of goot stuff about vetinsurance, but the no coverage on HD is a big no no for me... let me check out the links that were posted here... Thanks!

coppperbelle
January 23rd, 2008, 07:31 PM
I have Vetinsurance. When I was looking there were only three companies available. It seems that more companies are jumping on the band wagon. I saw a commercial in the U.S that if you insure your car with a particular company they include pet insurance.

Although I can't say with 100% certainty I would think that HD would be considered as a hereditary disease.
Why don't you call them and ask.

Masha
January 23rd, 2008, 08:23 PM
I just talked to Purina:

Yup, HD is a hereditery condition and they do cover it. But, in one of the links that rainbow posted (thanks rainbow they were really helpful!!), they raised a good point, indicating that companies that do cover HD sometiems get really sneaky; apparently when you have an option of either doing surgery to improve your pets life or just putting them on pain meds long term, the insurance wont cover the surgery as it is not 'necessary'.
I sked the purina lady on the phone about that and she said that if a vet says we should do something, then its covered and that if we are given an option, its up to us to make the choice and whatever we choose is covered (hmmm, i have my doubts about that....) then she went on a rant about how bad all the other companies are :rolleyes:

Anyone knows about taking out two policies? (for example taking out vetinsurance to cover the non HD stuff, and also taking out purina with the maximum deductible (22$/month), to cover the real serious stuff like HD)


My parent's dog just had stomach problem and they had to do a series of treatments and diagnostic tests; they ended up paying about 5,000. That freaked me out so much that i decided to go for insurance.... the funny/sad thing is that they do have insurance, but because these are all under the same category, and its not the first time she had to go to the vet for stomach issues, their limit has run out loooong ago (yet they still pay 80/month!!!) Sorry, just went on a bit of a rant here....

pbpatti
January 23rd, 2008, 10:56 PM
Anyone knows about taking out two policies? (for example taking out vetinsurance to cover the non HD stuff, and also taking out purina with the maximum deductible (22$/month), to cover the real serious stuff like HD)/month!!!) Sorry, just went on a bit of a rant here....[/QUOTE]what ever you do do not take out two policies they can become trouble in the event of a claim..I am a personal lines broker (house,auto etc) who will pay??

I have vetinsurance and have been very happy so far. When we have made a claim they have sent the chq to us within 8 - 10 days..if you have a good rapore with your vet they have an express claim, your vet sends the forms and you pay the vet any outstanding amounts. vetinsurance has increased their limit to 20,000 with a 10% co-insurance. i figured it out that if Sasha lived to be around 13yr we would have paid approx 4000 - 5000$ in premium, we have claimed already in 3 years about $1200.00. vetinsurance is underwritten by ING, i don't know the others but maybe check to see what insurance company is covering them? well i said my :2cents:for what it is worth i would recommend vetinsurance to anyone. pbp

satchelp
January 23rd, 2008, 11:41 PM
My only concern with purina so far, is that they are so new in the insurance business (i read somewhere that they started in September of 2007) that they didn't yet get a chance to gain a good/bad reputation.


PurinaCare is just a rebranded Petplan insurance plan. It is the same company (Securican).

TKW
January 24th, 2008, 03:00 PM
My home is insured by ING but I have no claim experience with them. I went with them b/c they are a lot cheaper than Lombard (my ex-isurer) who happens to underwrite Pet Care. I didn't go for VI since they exclude HD and labs are prone to that. Pet Care has life time limits on claims per category thus the problem of "coverage running out". Pet Plan's coverage limit is renewable every year but they will increase your co-insurance based on your claim history in a 24 mo period. We went from 20% to 50% after the 1st year and reduced to 40% 6 mo later.
Please bear in mind that all insurance companies are for profit. They will do anything to recover their pay out from their customers. Sometimes it makes you feel like they just want you to drop out after you make a sizable claim.

Masha
January 24th, 2008, 08:38 PM
Thanks for the heads up regarding double insurance. Thats what i was suspecting, so no double insurance for me.

Purina and petplan are the same company?! wow, thats good to know !! well, that changes things a lot for me.... no purina then.

I think i will go with VI and set aside some money every month into saving as a 'HD just in case fund'.


Thanks!!