Pet Insurance Reviews

Pet Care can get very expensive, because of this most vets will recommend some sort of pet insurance. Pet insurance companies work a lot like human insurance… There are factors that are involved in determining how much coverage you will need and how much you will pay for it. I collected information from some of the insurance companies available to help you make the decision if insurance is for you.

As I have mentioned on this site I am a proud pet mom of a 145lb Cane Corso puppy named Bourbon, he is currently 17months old and full of life. The quotes below are quotes I got using his breed, age and sex. There is a reason why these companies ask for some more targeted information about your pet, each quote is unique and will change based on the information you enter. The purpose for the collection of information below is merely to give you a base line and to see how the prices and coverages can vary from company to company based on the same pet information. I hope this helps you with your decision.

 Coverage and Plans – Puppy / Adult 

Comprehensive Coverage

• Personalized Policy – You can chose your annul maximum, deductibles, and reimbursement percentage.
• Breed specific conditions
• Cancer treatments
• Diagnostic testing and imaging
• Prosthetic limbs and devices including mobility aids
• Surgery, hospitalization, and nursing care
• Alternative therapies and rehabilitation
• ER and specialist care
• Optimal prescription coverage
• Behavioral Therapy

Your pet must be under the age of 14 years to enroll. Because they offer an customizing option to their plans you can choose to have a 90% reimbursement and a $5oo deductible, or a 80% reimbursement and a $200 deductible. The want to try and make their plans fit your budget. You can also decide what coverage maximum you want per year ($10,000 for example)

• Illness: 14 days
• Accidents: 48 hours, or 14 days depending on state
• Orthopedic conditions (dogs only) 6 months, can be reduced to 14 days by falling the exam and waiver process
• your pet must have also been to a vet within the past 12 month, if not you can take them during the waiting period and it wont effect your coverage.

Wellness Reward for Routine Care – Some thing extra

Wellness rewards is an optional plan that can be purchased in addition to your policy. This plan has no per-item limits. This plan includes:

• Wellness exams
• Vaccinations and titers
• Flea, tick, and heartworm medication
• Spay / neuter surgery
• Fecal exams
• Routine blood tests
• Microchipping
• Umbilical hernia repair
• Gastropexy
• Toe nail trimming
• Routine anal glan expression
• Routine chiropractic care, reiki, message therapy, acupuncture
• Anesthetic teeth cleaning and dental illness
• Prescription diet food purchased at your veterinarian
• OFA and PenHIP exams and X-rays
• Nutritional supplements
• Medicated Shampoos
• Behavioral / obedience/specialty training
• Pet activity monitors
• Grooming
• Cremation / burial

The added yearly reimbursement can be $250, $450, or $650. The lifetime maximum for every policy is $50,000, which they report has never been reached. There coverage in only in the US.

Things Not Covered

• Pre- existing conditions
• Breeding, whelping and pregnancy
• Injury caused deliberately
• Injury caused by fighting, racing, cruelty or neglect
• Cosmetic procedures such as tail docking, ear cropping and dew claw removal
• DNA testing or cloning
• Organ transplants
• Stem cell therapy not deemed medically necessary
• Avian flu or nuclear war

Online quote for my dog was pretty easy, all they wanted was name,age, sex, breed, and if he was fixed. They give you the basic options first, but you can customize it on the quote page. I changed my yearly deductible, and added the wellness plan. This company serves the US only.

Basic coverage to the right,my custom price with the changes to the left.

Below is an example of a few comparisons to other companies. To take a better look at this company and do an online quote check out their website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a magazine that you can subscribe too for $15 a year that is filled with information about your pets needs and many other tips. Or you can subscribe to their free newsletter.

 Coverage and Plans

I Liked that I was able to do an online Quote, its simple and easy. A pop up comes up on the side for a live chat incase you had any questions about what you see. All they needed for the Quote was the Dogs name, Breed, Age and postal code, they asked for my email and if I wanted to get information from their site but I was able to choose no to receive emails. The quote below is in Canadian dollars.

 

I enjoyed navigating through this site, I was colourful engaging. I’m happy it wasn’t tons of reading to get the info I was looking for.

The site offers a more detailed comparison to other insurance companies.

 Coverage and Plans

The follow is what is covered with all PetsBest accident and illness plans.

• accident
• illness
• cancer treatments
• hereditary and congenital conditions
• emergency care,  hospitalization, and surgery
• prescription medication
• on going and chronic conditions
• diagnostic
• physical rehabilitation
• older pets
• same coverage even if not spayed or neutered
• behavioral conditions
• dental coverage
• prosthetic devises and wheelchairs
• euthanasia
• coverage while traveling

Exclusions in the coverage include

• pre existing issues
• preventative and elective procedures
• parasited
• non veterinarian expenses
• herbal, holistic and experimental medications

To get a quote online they requested my puppy’s name, breed, age, and sex. They wanted to know my name and email along with zip (I have a postal code, so I improvised) and asked two questions about my pets health.

My quote with a $500 deductible and 80% reimbursement was:

Deductible of $100 and 80% reimbursement would be:

I like that during the quote portion that you can adjust your deductible and reimbursement amount. For your personal quote check out their website. This company serves the US only.

 Coverage and Plans

The following if the coverage you can expect with Trupanion, this coverage is for a 90% reimbursement.

• all wellness and injuries
• all illnesses your breed amy be prone too
• diagnostic testing
• surgeries
• hospital stays
• medications
• veterinary supplements
• prosthetics, devices, and carts
• and much much more

There aren’t any other tabs to go to to search the rest of the coverage.

Your responsible for:

• exam fees
• sales tax, where applicable
• wellness and preventative care
• pre- existing issues

To get an online quote that will give you more detailed information you will need to give the puppy’s name, age, breed, postal code and your email.

This is the quote I got for Bourbon, This company if for Canadian customers.

They have two Enhancement Packages I could add to my monthly plan:

On the side of this page it gives you another review of what is covered (its the same list as above). The give you a refresh of what isn’t covered. But this page will also tell you about the waiting period for your coverage to start, the deductible, notes about their pricing and claims.

Waiting Period – the waiting period for injury is 5 days and 30 for illness. There are further conditions if you use a promo code when setting up your plan.

Deductibles – the deductible is per condition for the lifetime of your pet. You are covered for 90% for the life of your policy.

Pricing – prices are customized based on your pet. They promise the rates wont be raised because your pet has a birthday.Your monthly price can be adjusted by choosing a higher or lower deductible, no matter what the choice is you choose to do they say it wont change your coverage.

Claims – the company will pay the vet directly so you don’t have to worry about the paperwork. You wont get punished for filing claims. They say they settle 10% of claims in less then 5min and 55% of claims in 24 hours. No mention of what happens with the remainder of the claims.

The site advertises a 30 day money back guarantee, but doesn’t seem to outline a yearly limit for the coverage…

 Coverage and Plans

There plans outline the follow coverage:

Excliusions: 

• pre existing conditions
• the vet exam fee
• preventative care such as check ups
• vaccines
• spay or neutering
• teeth cleaning
• anal glan expression
• parasite control
• elective procesdures

why choose this company? – head to tail coverage for injury,  illness, genetic conditions, and emergency care. After the annual deductible there is unlimited lifetime benefits.  they work hard to process claims within 3-10 business days. No claim forms, easy claim submission through their app. They have a giving back foundation, where every quote helps homeless pest in need get healthy so that they can get adopted…

There are a series of plan discounts you can apply for online such as company discounts, volunteers discounts and a few more… you can check these out on their site if your interested…

They have lots of stories of how they give back and support homeless pets. I really love this.

When applying for my rates they asked for the pets name, his birthday, breed, zip code, email, and if i had any promo codes to add.

The quote updated instantly when i change the deductible amount and reimbursement amount. This page also gives you a list of what is covered with the plan and a reminder of what isn’t covered. One thing different that they do is give you a chart at the bottom of some common things you would have to claim and the cost associated with it.

The other tables re outline what the plan covers and some details for you if you are still unsure.

This page also tells you that they have a 98% customer satisfaction rate, and allows you to click to see some reviews if you wanted to know more about this.

Under the tab that it titled product choices you will see basics, and dog health insurance and two other tabs. The basic tab gives you the coverage, the dog health insurance tab shows you the different tiers of coverage you can have and what the maximum coverage is for each tier.

 Coverage and Plans

• Hospitalization
• dental care
• surgery
• diagnostics
• medication
• exam fees
• taxes
• medical devices
• alternative therapy
• behavioural therapy
• preventative and routine exams (secure 4 plan only)

• pre existing conditions
• prescription food
• elective procedures (tail docking, ear cropping)
• umbilical hernias
• spaying or neutering
• breeding, pregnancy, whelping

This is my quote for my 1.5 year old Cane Corso, you have the options to change your yearly deductible to $100, and the new price with the change instantly appears.

Under the quote the list from the basics tab of what is covered and what is not was shown. Under that there were two additional coverage sections.

I thought this was cool because most added coverage features shown have an added cost per month. One thing that is unclear is if there is a reimbursement percentage along with the yearly deductible. there seems to be no mention of it on the site, so I am unsure if that means there is one of isn’t.

 Coverage and Plans

• ear infections
• bacteria dermatitis
• allergies
• lameness
• gastroentertis
• lumps and bumps
• bladder infections
• orthopaedic problems and complicated arthritis
• ear infections
• cancer

 

wellness coverage can de used towards your dogs vaccinations, medications, and other routine routine treatments not included with the accident and illness coverage. You choose the services and your premiums are based on the options you selected.

This promises that once your dog is enrolled in the benefits program, your coverage will automatically renew each year. Even if your dog gets cancer, arthritis or kidney disease.

They also have a Blue Ribbon service that is $8.95 on its own or free with paid coverage. It includes poison control help line, newsletters, coverage for if your dog incurs life threatening injury while lost, help line for pet owners with serious medical injuries, and a concierge hot line.

I find this site really wordy, its tough to find a quick reference… Once I got to the quote page things were laid out better.

When I applied for the insurance quote they asked for my pets name, breed, birthday, and portal code.

I really loved this feature, you got to choose the extras that suited your pets needs.For example dental coverage would have been almost 500 a year, larger breeds like my dog have way less issues with their teeth if you are doing daily teeth care at home like I do, so with this plan I was able to opt out of adding that to my coverage, and therefore saving myself some money. Oh and it is 100% covered

Just like other companies you can also adjust your deductible and reimbursement rates.

This company requires you to pay for your bills first and then send in a form for reimbursement.

 Coverage and Plans

This Company serves Canada and the US, first we will be looking at Canada and then right after we will be comparing the same coverage to the US.

This company offers a range of different plans to choose from, the above is the coverage for each level, I have not submitted a quote for my monthly payment yet.

When I put in the request for a quote they wanted my email, postal code, puppy’s name, breed, birthday and sex, they also wanted to know if he was a purebred or mix breed.

I was really surprised that for the maximum coverage it was only $111 monthly for Bourbon.

Overall this site was really simple to navigate, there wasn’t a crazy amount of tabes and charts to go through. But incase I did have any questions, like most insurance sites there was a live chat option.

 Coverage and Plans

When you go to the site and choose the US side it asks you to choose a state, this may mean that coverage varies based on state. I would keep that in mind when doing your quote. The enrolment age is 8 weeks – 10 years of age. 

The only difference in questions from the Canadian site was they asked if there was any conditions that may have had surgery.

As you can see the American side has an extra package choice. The Champion plan here exchanged to Canadian would be $106.90

Final Thoughts About Pet Insurance – Looking into all of these companies I can see that there is alot of coverage for things a pet parent may not think of,and may not plan for. Now if you are a super responsible person with money management you could always take the $100-$300 or so dollars you would have been spending on an insurance plan and put it away every month in a savings account as your rainy day fund. But if you are someone that feels better with having a policy and a company that handles all of the financial concerns of your pets medical bills I have gathered lots of information for you to help you make a decision about what company you think may be better for your needs. 

If I missed something or if there is something more you would like to know about, please leave a comment below.