Pet Insurance Guide

Lesson 1:
What is Pet Insurance?


Pet insurance or pet health insurance helps pay the cost of medical expenses if your pet becomes ill or has an accident.

Some pet insurance plans also offer Routine and Wellness coverage (reimbursement for vaccinations, healthy annual exams, spaying/neutering, etc) as well.

Pet insurance is best used to help mitigate or soften the economic shock of unexpected, high veterinary bills.

Pet Insurance GuideWhile working emergency duty at a university hospital, I worked on a Saint Bernard that swallowed the sleeve of a cable knit sweater on Christmas day. Unexpected?...Yes! Economic shock for the owner?....Yes! The bill came to what would be about $10,000 today for diagnostics, surgery and post-op care in the hospital. Most of this client's money had been spent on Christmas gifts...needless to say this accident hit her by surprise.

As with any insurance (auto, property, etc), there is a chance that you will get back from the insurance less than you paid because your pet stayed healthy and did not have any accidents or major illnesses.

On the flip side, there is a chance that you will get back more than you put in because your pet has bouts of bad luck.

Because either scenario is possible, pet insurance should not be used with the expectation of saving money. It should be used to soften the blow if something unexpected happens.

In the next tutorial, we will talk more about how pet insurance works...

...Oh and by the way, the Saint Bernard made a wonderful recovery. The cable knit sweater did not :-)



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