How Much is Pet Insurance?

You’ve likely been there; you’ve been told your pet’s life-saving health care will cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. In that moment, you’ll be wishing there was some kind of alternative. With multiple accessible health insurance options, there are alternatives, but just because insurance options are there, does that mean pet insurance is worth it? What are the costs? What are the benefits?

What Is Pet Insurance?

First, it’s important to understand what pet insurance is. Pet insurance is the same as people insurance. The patient pays a monthly premium as well as a deductible to cover routine and unexcepted healthcare costs. Coverage and costs are contingent on the company, the breed of pet, and the age and health of the pet. Other variables may factor in.

Provided, though, that should you choose to get pet insurance that you make payments in a timely fashion and maintain your part of the bargain with your provider, when and if you are in dire straits with your pet, your insurance will cover the financial burden that is often a painful moment of division for some pet parents in which they must choose financial ruin or their pet (a decision no one should have to make).

How Much Is Pet Insurance?

Because no pet parent should be in the predicament of making an often untenable financial sacrifice or saying goodbye to their pet—their family—pet insurance is an option. Of course, the monthly costs of pet insurance are an important consideration.

As noted, the company, type of pet, health of pet, etc. play a role in the monthly costs of insurance.

While some insurance plans can only cost a few dollars a month, others can cost upwards of $35 or $40 (or more) a month to provide health insurance for a dog. Deductibles range from $100 to $1000 with median prices being $250 and $500.

The precise amounts will, as noted, vary depending on the company you go with and the plan that you select. The main thing that pet insurance affords you is some leniency with routine care as well as peace of mind when and if your pet is confronted with a major health malady or trauma that requires a lot of costly tests and treatment.

How Does Pet Insurance Work?

To further explain, the way pet health insurance works is on a reimbursement basis. Just as you have a dental plan, for example, your plan only covers so much. In other words, while you might want to have your teeth straightened and whitened, your dental plan is relegated to the two visits every six months; of course, that’s what you signed up for, which validates the plan and means other services are out of pocket.

The same is true of pet insurance plans. You are going to get the services you pay for. Similarly, you will have a deductible. Once you meet your deductible, covered services are…covered until the next year. Just as with your health insurance, some years you meet your deductible; others, you don’t. It might be cause for grumbling all of those years that the deductible isn’t met, but for the years where you meet or exceed it, insurance suddenly pays for itself.

Is Pet Insurance Worth It?

While there can be a payoff with insurance, it could also be like anything else—you pay for security that you never actually need to call upon. Ultimately, this is to the discretion of every pet parent; your pet’s health, your financial means and ability to pay for emergency care, and the resources available to you should be deciding factors in your decision to procure pet insurance.

Importantly, while pet insurance can help in a crisis, a major factor in your pet’s health care is the day-to-day care you provide. Are you walking your pet regularly? Do you brush their teeth? Are you feeding them with a natural food that promotes a lifetime of wellbeing? If not, then you probably should have insurance because things like regular exercise, dental care, and a high-quality natural diet are built-in daily insurance for lifelong pet wellness. When you commit to making sure your pet is cared for every day and isn’t subject to costly and controllable health problems, you are diminishing the likelihood that you’ll have medical issues in the long-term.

Thus, while insurance may be important or necessary for you if you have a pet with special health needs, for the majority, “insurance” can be procured in the form of daily care—natural, healthy, delicious pet foods meant to promote digestive health, cardiovascular health, stress response health, and muscular systems health; in the form of fitness; and in the form of daily dental care.

Your pets are your people; as people who love pets and who love creating delicious, natural food for pets, we at Wellness Pet Food understand the conundrum of whether or not to get pet insurance. To at least reduce the costs for those who choose insurance and to help with peace of mind for those who don’t, we at Wellness are doing our part by making healthy pet foods for breeds of all needs to ensure that your pet stays healthy and happy and out of the veterinary ER for controllable health reasons.