ASPCA Pet Insurance | No Animal Cruelty
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a great company that does so much good. What many people do not know is that ASPCA also offers pet insurance products (ASPCA Pet Insurance) that you can take advantage of. Before I go into more details about their insurance offerings I would like to say that one of the reasons I would consider this insurance company is simple because of the brand and the cause that this company is fighting for. Cruelty to animals should not exist and therefore I find their cause very noble.
Now as far as their pet insurance they have created a website especially for this and it can be found at www.aspcapetinsurance.com. The first thing that you will find when you enter their site is that they provide you with two instant options. First option is to get a free pet insurance quote in an easy and quick way. All you’ll have to do is provide them with 4 simple answers.
Well, it is not exactly 4 answers but merely 4 categories of questions that you will need to answer. But they are still provided in a way that is easy to understand.
If you feel that this is too difficult you still have the option to call their support staff at 1-866-861-9092. They’ll ask you the same questions and fill out an application for you.
When you have more than one pet you need insurance coverage for they give you an additional 10% discount. Many insurance companies will give you discounts if you add more than one pet but that ASPCA Pet Insurance does it as well is still a plus.
Now the second option that you are confronted with on the front page is a guide to find the right insurance coverage plan for you. They offer increasing levels of coverage and the prices will naturally increase as well. By taking this guide you will be able to find out what coverage you can get for the amount that you are willing to spend on your pet insurance. This varies from person to person and some pets are far more expensive to insure than others.
As I said earlier there are many other companies that offer this kind of service and one of the best features that ASPCA has is their main company’s mission to avoid cruelty to animals. A ASPCA Pet Insurance might not be the right solution for you but I think that you should at least give them a few minutes to see what they have to offer.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I wouldn’t recommend the SPCA Pet Insurnace to anyone. They are a typical insurance company, promising great things, collecting premiums, cluttering your e-mail box with their propaganda. They are also typical when it comes time to reimburse the client - the payment is usually about 15% of the bill becasue they find methods of disallowing most charges. I’d advise everyone to buy from a reputable company, not SPCA.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hi T.E. First of all I would like to thank you for your comment and welcome you to the blog.
Sure SPCA is a typical insurance company but aren’t they all? I’m sure that you will find that every single insurance company outthere will have had complaining customers. I’m not saying that you aren’t right complaining but it does happen that some people are actually wrong and the company is right.
The problem is that people are then left with the bill and that makes them want to complain. Right or wrong…
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Check out Trupanion, you have to enrol your pet when they are a puppy or kitten but they have great coverage over the lifetime….
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hi Chris, welcome to you also. Is trupanion a new insurance company? I don’t believe that I have ever heard of them before. Could you tell us a little bit more about them if you are using them for your pet? Thanks.
Mikael
April 4th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Great advice about doing your homework before getting any insurance for your pet. Why should it be different then looking for auto insurance! My wife and I recently got a 9 month old Lab mix pup from our local shelter. Did my due diligence in researching insurance products and decided on a new company, Trupanion(www.trupanion.com). They specialize in lifetime coverage for puppies and kittens 8 weeks old up to one year. You get $20K to use for all accidents, illnesses, surgeries, meds and diagnostic tests,with no per incident minimum. Zero deductible and premiums won’t go up with pets aging or claims history. They’ll even cover hereditary and congenital diseases. Exclusions are pre-existing conditions and wellness/preventive care. I know coverage for wellness care is a big issue for some people, be having pets before, we have budgeted for that expense. Trupanion won’t be for everyone since they don’t cover older pets, but for us, they were the right choice because of their simple plan and extensive coverage. We’ll be sure to comment in the future “when” we have to submit a claim and can talk on the subject.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Hi Carpe Diem. That sounds absolutely fantastic. We’ll love to hear about your experiences with Trupanion. I’m actually thinking of writing a post about the sometime soon. Maybe you could comment on that as well. That would be great!
June 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I have twice requested pamplets on dangerous things around the home for your pets. I have been promised twice that I would recieve 50 of these pamplets for my dog club the Norwegian Elkhound Club of Northern California. I have recieved nothing. Can anyone help me?
June 10th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Hi Keith, thank you for your post. How did you request the pamplets? Did you send them an email, did you call them or did you actually show up in person?
It seems strange that aren’t more than willing to give away promotional items. That is every company’s dream to have customers ask for commercials
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 am
Hej jeg er fra danmark jeg hader også dyreplagerri de skulle havde nogle støre straffe. jeg ser meget Anemal
Venlig Hilsen Karen - Marie Due
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 am
I WANT TO LET EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT A SERIOUS AND UNCONSCIONABLE FLAW IN THE ASPCA PET HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS.
With ASPCA, you renew your plan on a yearly basis. This yearly renewal is inconvenient but not, in itself, a problem.
Here’s the very serious problem.
ANY CONDITION THAT EXISTED DURING THE PRIOR PLAN PERIOD IS CONSIDERED A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION!
What are the implications? Consider the following situation:
* Your dog is diagnosed with a serious cancer on a Monday and you schedule your dog for costly, major surgery on Thursday.
* You submit the ASPCA insurance claim on Tuesday.
* Your ASPCA plan is set for renewal on Wednesday.
* Your dog undergoes surgery on Thursday.
* You submit the ASPCA insurance claim for the surgery on Friday.
Guess what? YOUR CLAIM WILL BE DENIED!
Please let this sink in.
ANY CONDITION, NO MATTER HOW SERIOUS, THAT EXISTED EVEN 1 DAY PRIOR TO RENEWAL WILL NOT BE COVERED. This also implies that any condition that lasts, in any form, more than a year, will not be covered for the condition’s duration.
I talked to a customer service supervisor about this (their customer service is generally very good, BTW) and they acknowledged that it’s a real problem, citing examples of major, heartbreaking claims that were not covered because they spanned the renewal date.
What ASPCA will tell you is that they have a plan, the Sterling Plan, that covers “long-term” conditions (now remember, according to the example above, LONG TERM COULD ACTUALLY BE 4 DAYS). What they won’t emphasize is the following:
* The Sterling Plan is by far their most expensive plan. It is almost 50% more than their next most expensive plan, the Premier Plan, which is what I have.
* The Sterling Plan has a maximum PER INCIDENT (NOT per visit) benefit of $2500, which is HALF of the maximum incident benefit for the Premier Plan. This means that any condition, NO MATTER HOW SERIOUS, will not be covered past $2500. So, if you thought you could sign up for the Sterling Plan to deal with a catastrophic care situation—think again: $2,500 doesn’t go very far when it comes to things like cancer.
Now I understand the basic principles of insurance and actuarial science. With any insurance plan, there will be net winners and net losers. But what I’m telling you is that I do not believe that the majority of ASPCA Pet Health Insurance subscribers will save money over the life of their pet. That’s the bottom line.
For more information or to contact ASPCA Pet Health Insurance and tell them what you think, see http://www.aspcapetinsurance.com/pet-insurance-default.aspx.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Hi Rob, thank you for stopping by and for sharing your excellent research with us. I agree with everything you state but just to expand on your last comment:
“…I do not believe that the majority of ASPCA Pet Health Insurance subscribers will save money over the life of their pet. That’s the bottom line.”
This is true for EVERY SINGLE INSURANCE COMPANY. If the net result was that people received more than they had paid the company would go bankrupt… It is not MEANT to give people the net benefit. It is no different than a casino.