Pet insurance is an interesting industry. The target audience for the pet insurance companies is the families who are devoted to their beloved pets. It is easy to tug on the heartstrings of pet lovers by ‘what iffing’ a health crisis affecting your dog or cat but is it really necessary?
The Pitfalls of Pet Insurance For Some
In most cases, pet owners do not think to investigate pet insurance during the youth of their pet’s life. Instead, medical coverage only becomes a thought as a pet ages and begins to rack up expensive vet bills. For older animals, most insurance carriers won’t even insure for health coverage and if they do it is at considerable cost. The only kind of insurance available may be accident insurance. While incidents do happen, it is likely your pet will not be involved in any accident worth insuring against.
The reality of pet insurance is in most cases pet owners will pay more money in insurance premiums than they would pay for regular pet care if your animal does not generally require care beyond regular check ups. But even in a health crisis where more serious procedures are necessary, pet insurance policies come with a lot of fine print legalese. Most pet owners with insurance end up paying way more cash with insurance than without.
Pet Insurance Has Cheap Premiums
While pet insurance premiums are often advertised as very low cost (who can’t afford just $10 a month?), the reality is that the supposedly small premiums over a period of time add up to the thousands. In addition to the premiums you pay monthly, you also must pay out of pocket up to the deductible amounts, pay the co-pays for visits, and foot the bill for any services excluded from coverage.
Are there Better Options
Spending thousands of dollars over your pet’s lifetime for something that ‘might happen’ realistically does not make sense, especially for budget-conscious people. A better alternative for planning ahead for the medical needs of your pets would be to set aside an amount each month equivalent of a premium payment into a savings account with high-interest earning potential. Not only would the money saved be valuable at the time of a pet emergency, the funds would not be lost to an insurance company if it is not used.
Of course we love our pets and would do everything to protect them but pet insurance is meant to be a complicated and perhaps emotionally-driven industry that is far less necessary than a basic savings account to cover costs should something happen to your pet. If you’re a pet lover, I’ll assume that pet insurance is worth the cost and not too expensive.