My Pet Family and Buying Insurance:
I've had a happy pet family for a couple years now. A tuxedo cat named Benzi, an orange cat named Ember, and a white terrier named Lucy. You might recall that my first cat, Duncan, died at the age of 13.5 years due to bladder stones. At that time, I didn't have pet insurance, so the veterinary bills quickly started to pile up when he got sick. I think I spent around $4,000 to keep him hospitalized in hopes that he would get better, and I was prepared to drop another $10,000 should he need surgery to save his life. Unfortunately, we never made it to that point, he was put to rest before he was able to have surgery.
When I adopted my new pets, I wanted to sign all of them up for pet insurance. I wasn't really sure what to go with since I had never bought pet insurance before. I researched many options and found one that sounded good: Nationwide "Major Medical". This was an insurance plan that offered a 100% reimbursement for many medical conditions after a $250 annual deductible. My cats were signed up for $18 a month and the dog is $30 a month. They say dog insurance is more expensive since they go outside and are more prone to getting injuries when outside. They also offered me a 5% discount for each additional pet. Another perk to the plan was that they would allow me to use any veterinarian, not just ones they approve.
My philosophy for getting pet insurance was simple math. Assuming a cat lives for about 15 years and at $18 a month, that would be about $3,200 towards insurance over the span of its life. I easily spent that much on Duncan when he got sick and was prepared to spend much more. A dog living 12 years at $30 a month would cost $4,300. I figured the math made sense, so I would go ahead and give Nationwide Pet Insurance a try for the lives' of each of these three new pets of mine.
Adding pets to a pet insurance plan was pretty simple. Nationwide did run a background check on the pets to eliminate any pre-existing illnesses/injuries from being covered and the plan doesn't take into effect until 2 weeks after you sign up. This is obviously to prevent people from only signing up for insurance once their pet gets sick. To my knowledge, you can cancel pet insurance at any time. I'm also not sure if it goes up in price per month as the pet gets older.
My Experience Claiming Pet Insurance:
My dog Lucy recently had a couple operations based on vet recommendation. First, all of her little teeth in the front of her mouth were loose. My vet suggested we remove them, since it was probably painful for her and it's not like she chewed with them anyway. Second, she had developed a couple masses growing under her shoulder and above her belly.
OPERATION #1:
Based on my vet's recommendation, I proceeded to have her teeth removed and the rest cleaned. She also ran two punch biopsies on the masses to have them sent to the lab to for analysis. The first operation ran me $1,500. You can see my invoice here:
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| Invoice #1 for Teeth Removal, Cleaning, and Mass Biopsies |
Submitting a claim to Nationwide was very easy. I wrote two paragraphs describing what had happened to my dog and attached a PDF of my invoice, similar to what you see above. I also mentioned that surgery on the masses would likely be needed in a couple weeks. A few days later, they had approved my claim! I assume they called the veterinarian for confirmation of the procedure, but personally I was never contacted.
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| Claim #1 for Teeth Removal and Mass Biopsies |
I knew that I would have to pay $250 for the annual deductible. I also knew that dental cleanings were not covered, so I expected to pay that portion as well. A couple weeks later, a check arrived in the mail for $1,150!
OPERATION #2:
After the biopsy results showed that the masses were benign and there was more clarity what they were made of, my vet proceeded with surgery to remove them. This operation cost me another $1,000.
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| Invoice #2 for Mass Removal |
I submitted another claim to Nationwide and after a couple days they had approved my claim!
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| Claim #2 for Mass Removal |
Another check arrived in the mail, reimbursing me for all of operation #2.
Overall Review:
This was my first time submitting any insurance claims for any of my pets and I could not have been happier with the process. It was exactly as I expected it to be. I spent around $2,500 to have these two operations done for my dog Lucy and overall I only paid $250 for the annual deductible and another $200 for dental cleaning, which I knew wasn't covered.
Even before the operation, I had questions and each time I called Nationwide, their support was very quick to get a hold of and very informative to explain me what was covered and how it was going to be covered.
I've had my dog Lucy for 30 months, which means I've spent about $900 in pet insurance to this day. Throw in the $250 deductible, I've spent $1,150 on her but I also saved $1100 so far because it would have cost me $2,250 if I didn't have the insurance. Already the insurance has paid for itself.
Based on this experience, I highly recommend Nationwide Pet Insurance! The Major Medical seems like the best value to me. You can upgrade to their premium plan "Whole Pet" if you want things like vaccines and dental cleanings covered, but I think the value is not as good there. I also had a lot more peace of mind when the vet suggested actions for my dog. Knowing that I had insurance to help cover the costs of the operations made it easier to get the proper treatment for my dog, which is ultimately in the best interest of my pet.
You know your pets will eventually get sick. If you're like me, you adopt these pets with the responsibility that you'll do whatever you can to help them should they get ill. Having pet insurance is now a no-brainer for me and I'm really glad I signed up for it. I hope you'll consider Nationwide if you're looking at options!
