Pet Insurance Wellness Plans: Do they make financial sense?
Most often when people hear of pet health insurance, they automatically compare it to their own human health care, naturally. And with human health care most of our routine shots, routine doctor visits, and regular dentist cleanings are all covered. So, one would expect those similar things to also be covered with pet health insurance, right?
Well, no, not necessarily. With pet insurance wellness coverage is either an add-on for extra money or will be included in a plan at an increased premium. In the research I’ve done, these wellness options can cost from $10 to $35 extra a month in addition to the premium. Do you think that that $100 to $400 a year justified? Has anyone saved money by using this program? Or has anyone found these plans to work against them?
I recently got insurance with Pet’s Best and they offer a separate wellness insurance for $17 a month which covered all the appropriate things and would cover approx 70-80% of the full costs. I didn’t bother getting this as the cost of annual wellness exams etc is predictable and the insurance companies have to make money so its not going to work out any cheaper than just paying my vet.
I liked that it was optional with Pet’s Best and could be added onto any policy if you wanted it. Some other companies automatically include it/force you to take it on their higher plans even if you don’t want it or it would be more expensive than just paying the vet directly.
I have the wellness policy with Banfield Clinc in the PetSmart. And I truly love it.
They call and make sure you bring in your pets for their proper protection and nearly every time I own nothing. Teeth cleaning is covered, until one of my guys had to have an extraction. So out of a $498. bill, I paid $42. Last trip was $980 and I had to pay $128.00 So I am very pleased. I figured that I have save close to $8000. over the past 3 years. I do not have any major medical coverage, so I just make sure my guys get a protected life with good quality food and supplement (JuicePlus+).
But I could not be happier with my present relationship with my pets care and the Banfield Clinics.
Hey Lyn,
Happy to hear that you’ve found a wellness plan that works for you! Just to make one quick point of clarification for the rest of our readers, Banfield’s wellness plan is not actually a form of insurance, but rather just a wellness coverage option.
It is my understanding that they will cover just the routine visits. Out of curiosity, would they also cover a spay/neuter? And is there a limit to how many times they will cover a teeth cleaning? I know that these can get pretty expensive…
Happy health to your guys!
I had “wellness insurance” for my birds which was supposed to take care of alot of the annual visit expense. I ended up spending more money on this part of the policy than I received and was told that “wing trim,” “beak trim” and “nail trim” weren’t specifically listed on the invoice so they only paid $7 for a “wing trim” because it said “Avian Trim.” So $14 out so far…hey it was totally not worth it and I canceled this on both parrots.
I do not get the “wellness” coverage for my Australian Shepherd she is NOT vaccinated yearly. She sees a holistic vet on a regular basis and none of that is covered.
I have pet insurance and it is a complete rip off. By the time you pay the deductible (per illness) and the co-pay, the reimbursement is minimal. It is almost $400 a year and technically you could probably just bank that for an emergency. They say they will cover most things, but when it comes right down to it, there is almost always some clause that prevents you from getting the full reimbursement.
What about multi-pet households, are there discounts for multiple pets. With 3 cats and a limited income, this does not seem financially feasible for me.
Please check out gopetplan.com. I have had numerous policies and have done my homework. I have saved thousands of dollars and they are, by far the BEST! Wellness plans do not make any sense. Just stick with the regular policies and I gurantee you will love pet plan!
Tanya,
I’m sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with a pet insurance company. What I would like to encourage on this blog is more specific, educational comments as opposed to general “pet insurance is awful” comments.
This blog is really meant to educate pet owners so that they may choose to get pet insurance, or not, and if so what is the best way to make your decision.
What I would recommend on top of reading comments on this blog, is for anyone considering pet insurance to do their research first. Two tools that I know that pet owners have found quite helpful is a pet insurance review site and an online tool for comparing pet insurance companies.
Pat Kelley,
There are companies that offer multi-pet discounts, should you choose to do that. There are also companies that offer high deductible plans to cover only those incidents that are extreme. I think this is a good choice for those people who want to keep their monthly premiums low, because as you would assume (and correctly so), the higher your deductible, the lower your monthly premiums.
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), should you choose to listen to them, recommends that pet owners choose pet insurance policies with a high deductible. Because of this, they have started offering a Seal of Acceptance to companies that offer high deductible plans.
We have wellcare coverage (and regular coverage, as well as a cancer rider) with VPI and have been very happy with it so far. They have covered everything we expected them to, and we feel that we can get certain wellcare items done that we might not normally do because of the cost. For example, this year we got lung x-rays because the cats (littermates) pant with heavy exercise, and mom and the vet decided they wanted to make sure there was nothing unusual going on in the lungs. They came back fine, so now we have a good baseline. VPI has not paid that claim yet (only recently submitted it), but based on past experience with them we do not expect a problem as x-rays are clearly defined as part of the wellcare coverage.
We did some quick math and the difference between what they cover/reimburse as far as wellcare and what we pay in premiums is a very reasonable amount to pay for pure insurance to cover unexpected injuries or illness. The deductible is $50. We also like that the wellcare coverage covers TWO wellcare vet visits a year. We take advantage of this as we’ve had cats hide illnesses before, and we hope this visit schedule will help us detect any problems early, and early detection is key in so many illnesses.
Ivan and Boo,
Thanks for sharing your experience(s). You’ll have to keep us posted when you get a response to your recent claim and let us know how it turns out!