Seven Deadly Sins of Pet Health Insurance

Let's face it. Insurance is right up there with politicians of a certain stripe and the legal profession when it comes to the public love meter. In some cases that reputation is deserved and in other cases insurance can save your bacon.

My lovely wife backed our truck over her $3000 bicycle the other day. Within ten days we had a check from our home owners policy for replacement costs. She's riding a nice new bike as I write this. Dr Bill relayed a story the other day about bi-lateral hip replacement in a Labrador retriever. The total vet bill for that one was over $5000 and the owners got a check for over $4000 from us.

I can tell you that in both cases the insured was very happy. That's not always the case.

If you know what is in your policy you are more likely to be pleased and less likely to have an unpleasant surprise. With that in mind I'm planning to do a seven part series on common features of pet health insurance that might end up disappointing the policy holder. I'm not going to name names by the way. Instead Ill try to point out things you might want to avoid when you buy.

 

Here's the list of topics we'll cover starting tomorrow:

1. Per Incident Deductible VS Annual Deductible

2. Is it Really covered?

3. Do you have a Benefit Schedule?

4. Is this year's chronic disease next year's pre existing condition?

5. Are Hereditary conditions covered?

6. Emergency and Specialist Care

7. Annual VS Lifetime Limits