In this article I will try to uncover and make it clearer for you what should be thought of when deciding whether something is an affordable pet health insurance or not. It is easy to look search for something that is “affordable” and you’ll never find anyone that will be looking for something that is unreasonably highly priced. That wouldn’t make much sense unless you’re trying to deliberately spend someone else’s money.
What does affordable cover?
Finding something to be affordable is mostly drawn from two different perceptions. One is that you can pay for it while being in the financial situation that you’re in. It doesn’t mean that things are cheap but only that you’ll able to come up with the money. I find it hard to believe that people searching for an affordable pet health insurance wants to pay that much for it and that leads me to the second meaning of the term.
Affordable Pet Insurance
An affordable pet insurance will be insurance where you find a balance between the price you are willing to pay for the level for security and comfort you’re going to get. Normally this will be an ongoing adjustment as most people will start out paying very little for a whole lot of security and that will never work. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the more risk the insurance companies are going to take on their shoulders the more money they will want to have for doing so. It is not always nice to realize this as a pet owner but if you thing about it a little it can only be considered fair.
So let us come to the conclusion (or make the assumption) that when we’re talking about affordable pet health insurance coverage, then we are really talking about getting as much value for our money as we possibly can.
Affordable pet health insurance – Is there any alternative?
Of course there is an alternative because you’re not forced to have a pet insurance (some pets require some level of insurance coverage by law). So you can just decide not to have any and then hope that your pet never gets sick, require medication or will need surgery. If your pet stays healthy and well from it is born until it dies you’ll not need any coverage.
You can also be in a situation where you don’t have any money worries and where you can easily pay for any VET bill, medical bill or pet hospital bill that may come your way. If that is the case then a pet insurance might be more trouble than help and you will probably have an easier time not getting one.
But since you’re looking for an affordable pet health insurance my guess is that you don’t have lots of money to spare and that you would really want the security that a pet health insurance can give you.
Let us look at what pet surgery may cost you
Pet surgery will vary greatly in price as it depends on a lot of different factors like what is wrong with the pet, what kind of pet it is, who will be performing the surgery, where the surgery will be taking place and tons of other variables. So even if I were able to give you some prices you might not be able to compare then to the situation that your pet will be in if or when the pet surgery is needed.
From talking to a wide selection of pet owners (of mostly dogs and cats) here are some of the prices that they have had to pay for their pets:
- £249.59 for a dog biopsy and blood test
- $950 to repair a dog’s torn ligament in the knee
- $4,000 for a dog that got hit by a car
- $2,000 for a dog that needed front arm surgery and pain killers
- $2,200 for suture surgery
- $3,250 for TPLO surgery
And this list could go on like this. So when you need to make up your mind whether something is an affordable pet health insurance you will need to think of price on things like the ones mentioned above and think about whether you would be able to find between $1,000 and $4,000 if you suddenly needed to. From my experience most people do not have that kind of money lying around and even if they did there is no guarantee that your pet will only require one surgery. Depending on what has happened it might require several procedures to fully recover.
Many times a year there are pet owners that will have to let their pets go because they can’t or won’t pay the price it will cost to treat them. It is a sad fact but unfortunately it is true.
So do you need a pet health insurance after all?
I think it is a personal decision so I can’t give you any guidance on it. Personally I would look at my budget and see what I would consider to be the highest possible price that I were able to pay for an affordable pet health insurance policy and then take it from there. There is no need to look for total pet insurance coverage if you can only pay one tenth of what it will cost.
From searching one of the major pet insurance providers in the US I found that you can get their top premium dog insurance package for about $45 per month and another would charge about $60 per month. Now you can’t compare those prices as there many different aspects that go into each of their individual plans and I suggest that you go talk to your VET before deciding on anything.
3 things to consider before choosing a pet insurance
First I would suggest that you ask your pet’s VET what kind of illnesses your particular pet breed normally suffers from. They’ll have a great knowledge in that area and if your pet isn’t a breed that normally get certain types of illnesses then their might not be a reason for buying a pet insurance that covers that particular illness.
Second thing is that you will often be able to negotiate prices with the insurance companies. Even when you ask for an affordable pet health insurance and they give you a price you can always talk to them about how you might be able to lower that fee.
Third thing is that you’ll need to feel deep inside what you think will be the right amount to pay for treatment of your pet. I know that you probably love it to death but if you’re suddenly presented with a bill of $5,000 would you still be willing to pay the price? I know it is a hard decision to make but that is probably the most important thing to make up your mind about when looking for an affordable pet health insurance.