Pet Insurance

Done By: Sri Harsha

SEC- E

121823605030

To begin with, a pet insurance is an insurance product that is bought to cover

for a pet’s overall health in case accidents or illnesses happen in the future.

The product is provided so that the pet owner could be able to pay for all the

veterinary expenses in case of possible sickness or accident. It is a fact that

veterinary costs are very high, often much more expensive than actual health

costs of pet owners. This is especially true when pets are of rare or expensive

breeds.

Several pet insurance policies even offer third-party coverage so that you could

even file for claims in case your animal companion incurs injury to others or

damage to other people’s properties, which should be shouldered by the pet

owner in most instances. Even pet boarding expenses during hospitalization

and even holiday cancellation bills are covered by some products.

WHY DO YOU NEED PET INSURANCE?

Did you know that the average costs of veterinary treatment have more than

doubled in the past ten years? And that costs for certain kinds of treatments,

including surgery, chemotherapy and even routine preventive procedures, have

risen even faster? The costs of keeping your pets healthy – or even saving their

lives – have never been higher.

Consider these facts about pet health care:

 There are roughly 6 million new cancer diagnoses made in dogs and a

similar number in cats made each year.

 88% of dog owners and 63% of cat owners took their pet to the

veterinarian at least once in the past 12 months.

 The average number of visits to the veterinarian each year is 2.8 for dogs

and 2.3 for cats.

 The most common reason for veterinary visits for dogs and cats is

routine care, which includes physical exams, vaccines, dental work and

other related services. These routine visits, on average, cost dog owners

$211 each year and cat owners $179 each year.

  In addition to routine care, dog and cat owners spend an average of

$574 and $334 each year, respectively, on surgical veterinary visits for

various illnesses and injuries.

Unfortunately, you never know when your pets may experience an injury or

illness. But with a Pets health Care Plan, you won’t have to put a price tag on

their life. You can even choose a plan that reimburses you for routine

preventive treatments like dental cleanings and vaccinations.

Responsible Care

In many European countries - like the UK and Sweden - insuring your pet is just

as common as insuring your home or car. It's second nature. Today, responsible

pet ownership about more than loves them - it means being able to provide the

right environment, stimulation, lifestyle, exercise and activity levels, nutrition

and health care for your pet.

Avoiding Difficult Decisions

Did you know that many pets do not receive potentially life-saving treatments

because the cost is too great for the owners to bear?

Pet insurance allows you to provide your pet with the best possible care.

Decisions regarding treatment are no longer complicated by financial

restrictions. Treatments that may otherwise be unattainable can be provided

without a second thought. Your primary concern becomes the health of your

pet, not the cost of care.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Pet Insurance

There are many reasons to insure a pet, depending on the reason why you

decided to get a pet and possibly opt for a pet medical insurance in the first

place.

Advantages to Insuring Your Pet

1. You always have the security of being able to provide your pet with proper

medical care and you will be avoid to get and pay for treatment.

2. When other people are looking after your dog they don’t have to hesitate to

take the animal to the vet if they think that something might be wrong with the

animals.

3. You won’t have to fork out a huge sum of money if your pet has an accident

and needs medical assistance or surgery.

Disadvantages to Insuring Your Pet

1. You have to pay a monthly fee, even if you don’t need to take your pet to see

the vet.

2. A pet insurance company will hardly ever reimburse you with 100% of the

total amount that needs to be paid for your pet’s treatment. Usually companies

only pay out 80%.

3. An insurance repaying annual checkups visits and surgery and other medical

care can be expensive.

How Does Pet Insurance Work?

Pet insurance is actually quite flexible. All pet insurance companies in the

United States permit you to visit any veterinarian in the country including

emergency veterinarians and specialists. Some pet insurance companies,

including Embrace, will even cover you in Canada, Mexico, and other parts of

the world when you are on vacation.

Pet insurance is what is known as a indemnity insurance where you pay the

claim up front and the company reimburses you after applying your deductible

and co-pay, until you reach your policy's annual or lifetime maximum.
Step 1: Get a Policy

Most pet insurance companies will issue a new policy to pets aged 8 weeks to

up to 8 or even 10 years old, sometimes older if your pet undergoes a medical

exam. Usually there is a waiting period and some pre-existing conditions may

be excluded temporarily or permanently from your policy.

Step 2: The Waiting Period

The waiting period is the time between when you first sign up for pet insurance

and when your full coverage kicks in. For example, if you sign up and begin

coverage on March 1st then your waiting period for accidents may be two or

three days after, say March 3rd, and for illnesses as long as 4 weeks later, say

March 31st.

Most pet insurance companies have a waiting period of 48 hours for accidents

and between 14 and 30 days for illnesses. The waiting period is there so that no

one takes out insurance immediately after an accident or illness.

The waiting period only applies in your first policy year, after that there is no

waiting period on your pet insurance.

Step 3: Making a Claim

Once you've gone to the veterinarian, you pay the bill and fill out a claim form

that your veterinarian signs. You fax or mail this form in to the pet insurance

company along with your paid and itemized veterinary bill.

Some pet parents wonder why the pet insurance company can't reimburse the

veterinarian directly like in human health insurance.

The main reason is that pet insurance is a very, very small industry compared to

human health insurance. The computer systems aren't in place that would allow

direct reimbursement to the veterinarian and these networks are incredibly

expensive to build. However many companies, including Embrace, can and do

make exceptions to this but these must be arranged between you, your

veterinarian, and the pet insurance company on a case-by-case basis.

Step 4: You Receive Your Claim Check

Once you've sent in your claim form, it is assessed and you usually receive a

check or direct deposit back into your account minus any deductible or co-pay

that apply to your policy, until you reach your policy's annual maximum.
If you paid for additional coverage’s like routine care or prescription drugs then

these will be reimbursed on your claim too according to your pet insurance

plan's limits.

TYPES OF PET INSURANCE

To many families a pet can bring love, companionship and security to a home. 

And with this relationship comes a responsibility on behalf of the pet owner to

provide for their pet's proper veterinary care - whether it's a routine checkup

or emergency care.  That's where pet insurance comes into play.

In fact, we're going to talk about two types of pet insurance that all pet owners

should seriously consider - pet health insurance and pet liability insurance. 

We're also going to discuss each of these two types of pet insurance separately

and for a very practical reason.  Pet liability insurance is often included as part

of your homeowner's insurance policy and pet health care insurance carriers

specialize in the medical care / veterinarian segment of the insurance industry.

Pet Health Insurance

Regardless of whether you've purchased your pet from an expert breeder or

adopted from a local center, all pets should see a veterinarian for an initial

examination.  These initial visits can run anywhere from $50 to $250

depending on where you live and the extent of the medical services

provided.Most pets will then require regularly scheduled follow up visits to a

veterinarian as part of a well-care program that includes vaccinations,

immunizations as well as routine medical examinations.  The point here is that

the costs of providing routine pet health care can add up.  If you add to this the

unplanned costs that can occur from accidents and illnesses you quickly realize

why there is a steady and growing demand for health insurance that covers

pets.

Pet Liability Insurance

The second type of pet insurance we're going to discuss has to do with pet

liability insurance.  Every pet owner, especially dog owners, needs to carefully

consider purchasing liability insurance for several very good reasons.

The first and foremost reason for considering this type of insurance has to do

with the simple fact that dogs do bite.  Each year, nearly five million people in

the US along are bitten by dogs.  And the liability payments associated with

these accidents now approach one billion dollars annually.

The second reason for carrying this type of pet insurance is because it helps to

protect those that are around the pet most frequently.  That means protecting

friends and relatives from the expense associated with a dog-related injury.

Finding Pet Liability Insurance

In the past, it was pretty easy to find pet liability insurance.  Typical renters and

homeowners insurance policies provide victims of dog bites with $100,000 in

coverage.  However, the insurance industry has been slowly moving away from

providing this type of pet insurance automatically within a homeowner's

policy.

Today's new insurance policies may actually exclude bites and injuries caused

by dogs - while other insurance carriers are beginning to eliminate this

coverage from their existing policies.  In addition, a more common tactic of an

insurance company might be to identify certain breeds of dogs that have been

associated with these types of injuries and excluding them from coverage.

The bottom line here is that pet owners, especially dog owners, should make

sure their insurance policy provides them with the protection they need.  If you

own a dog and your existing insurance policy explicitly denies this liability

coverage, then you may want to switch to an insurance carrier that does

provide you with this coverage.

Finally, we're going to finish up with the same warning we gave earlier when

talking about pet heath care insurance policies - read your policies so that you

have a good understanding of what's covered and what's not covered.  You

don't ever want to be surprised when you're filing an insurance claim.

How to Buy Pet Insurance?

With more and more people wanting to answer their paternal and maternal

instincts by owning pets, the need for a more comprehensive coverage on

pets’ health and life have become more urgent. This is perhaps why the

number of pet insurance products in the market has tripled in recent years.

This gives pet owners more options when choosing the right pet insurance

product for their animal loved ones.

If you are one of those pet owners who have not bought a pet insurance yet, it

will be a good idea for you to read this article. We will tell you the steps that

you need to take in buying pet insurance.

Do your homework

This means that before you buy a pet insurance or even contact an agent, you

need to prepare yourself and read about insurance policies and their features.

The internet is one of the most important sources of information. Most

insurance companies will have websites where you will find the products that

they are offering along with their company profiles and services offered. It will

also be a good idea to talk to other pet owners who have also bought insurance

for their pets. Their experience will be a big help to you. Ask them for

recommendations on great deals in pet insurance and also advice on what to

look for.

Find an agent

One of the most important things that you need to do is to find an insurance

agent that you know you can trust. You can ask your family and your friends

for recommendations. This is vital because you need someone who will put
your interest first and your pets before their own self-interests. You see these

insurance agents earn a commission for every pet insurance that they sell.

Discuss the options and ask questions

Never be afraid to ask questions. If there are things in the policy and the

features of the product that you don’t understand, never be afraid to ask.

Understanding the policy will allow you to choose wisely and in turn get a great

deal. When buying a pet insurance, you need to take into consideration the

duration of the coverage. Will you buy something that will cover your pet’s

who lifetime or will something that you can renew annually suffice?

This will largely depend on your budget and your pet’s condition. Another

feature is the amount of coverage. Depending on how sickly your pet is, you

need to choose the maximum amount that your pet will be covered. Other

important things that you should consider are when the insurance policy will

be covered and also if the policy will also cover vaccinations and shots. Some

will be starting a month after you signed the contract.

Complete all requirements

Once you finally have finally decided on the kind of pet insurance that you will

be getting, the next step is to make the payment and accomplish all the

requirements. You need to make sure that all your requirements are in order.

Otherwise, you may have problem when it is time to reimburse the payments

that you have made. That is actually one of the things that you have to look

into.

Because payments are reimbursed, this means that you need to have the

money first to pay the hospital. Otherwise, you will also not be entertained

even with an insurance policy.

Factors to Consider Before You Buy Pet Insurance

If you have own a pet, you should make sure it is insured. Pet insurance

policies are now considered as necessities. That is because no pet owner could

tell whether the animal would not be spared from any illness or accident in the

future. Insurance products for pets are designed and made to help owners

shoulder veterinary expenses for costly hospitalizations, confinements,

surgeries, and x-rays of the companion animals in the future. It is a fact that

healthcare of pets is very expensive, sometimes costlier than human

healthcare.

It helps if you are sure you would not have to worry much about whether you

would have enough money in case inevitable accidents and illnesses hit your

pet. However, you have to make sure your pet insurance policy is appropriate

and has a broad coverage. Before you buy any insurance product for your pet,

make sure you take note of the following factors first.