Exploring the Pet Insurance Options

My mother has a new puppy--a black pug named Mia. Two of her pugs died withing three weeks of each other--one from cancer and the other from old age and disease. Needless to say, this new bundle of energy is her new lease on life.

Anyway, after the first pug was diagnosed with cancer throughout her body and organs, courtesy of the University of Penn Veterinary Hospital, the bill was enough to almost send my mother to meet her maker (God, forbid). Now this is a woman who has owned hundreds (no exageration) of dogs in her lifetime, and this was the first time I ever saw her blink an eye at a vet bill so you know it had to have been astronomical.

My point here is that the next day she asked me about veterinary pet insurance. I told her about VPI, my carrier, gave her my speech about the only time that it truly pays to get it is when the dog is a puppy, and told her to purchase the most expensive plan--Superior Coverage.

I also told her that it is NOT like human insurance--you have to do the paperwork like submit the receipts and the claim forms and shell out the money up front. Usually by the time your reimbursement check arrives, the sting of the original charge has worn off, so any money toward that amount feels like a gift.

Imagine my surprise when she decided to indeed purchase insurance, but not the plan offered by VPI. Instead she went with the AKC plan, for no clear reason, except that is the plan that her brother uses for his dog. We now know who holds more influence over my mother, but my real point here is that when I got pet insurance, there was only one game in town: VPI. Now the field is more crowded and you do owe it to yourself to carefully compare options.

While I have not checked into the AKC plan, I would imagine that the advice of getting the insurance before there are any pre-existing conditions and buying the best plan you can afford, still holds. As I have written before, the insurance, for me, is often a peace-of-mind thing. As in when your dog does have to go to Penn on an emergency basis (again God forbid) and you don't have to decide whether or not you are going to agree to an expensive procedure that might save the dog's life because there is a steep price tag attached. Somehow, knowing that you will get some of the cost back, makes it easier to fork over the credit card, at least for me.

So buyer beware and do your homework. For me, I'm sticking with what we have.

Besides, I wonder if the AKC plan will remember Mia on her birthday. Sam's card came the other day from his friends at VPI.