I’ll begin by saying: I don’t have all the answers when it comes to this topic, and I welcome others to weigh in with their own experiences, but for what it’s worth: pet insurance has been a life-saver for us (literally).
Also, I’m writing this article more as a discussion point & to offer info for those with a healthy dog in your family, because unfortunately, I don’t know of any policy that will cover pre-existing conditions, so if your dog already has a diagnosis, then it’s likely too late to get coverage. For your healthy dog, though, I’d highly recommend you look into this if you haven’t already.
We use Healthy Paws. I put Cat on it when she was still just my foster puppy because I knew she planned to adopt me 😂, and I couldn’t bear the thought of EVER having to make a decision based on money in order to save her life.
It’s not cheap: I pay $65/mo for an 8-year-old, 80lb GSD and the rate climbs every year on renewal. I never even used it in her first 6 years, so when it shot up $20/mo in May 2023 — pre-hemangiosarcoma — I called & complained. I now feel silly, as the policy has paid out over $16,000 in the last 8 months to cover cancer treatments.
Some of the pros of Healthy Paws, from my experience:
- No maximum annual or lifetime payouts << this is an important one because a lot of companies will cap you at a certain amount
- Making a claim is super easy — you upload the bill and that’s it
- Claims are typically processed in 2 days
- You can choose your deductible (ours is $250), as well as your co-insurance (ours is 80% — so after the deductible, they pay 80% of the covered costs)
- They cover FidoCure DNA testing for sick dogs (that totaled about $1300)
Some of the cons of Healthy Paws:
- The larger & older the dog, the higher the premium
- Their exclusions:
- While pretty standard for pet policies, they do not pay exam fees, and those can really add up.
- They don’t cover any preventatives — so nothing from an annual wellness exam like rabies vaccines, etc. They don’t cover heartworm or flea/tick meds, either.
- They don’t cover prescription foods.
- No coverage for holistic vet costs, nor do they cover the costs of supplements << this is a big one for us, since the cost of alternative meds is more than my monthly car payment
- Lastly, and this one is really frustrating: They do not cover the cost of prescription medications that are not FDA-approved for veterinary use. This is also a big one for us since she’s on two targeted therapies that cost about $325/mo. I’m trying to appeal this one, though, because:
- Cat has a heart condition and these two drugs are the only options.
- Also — this is completely non-sensical: they covered her FidoCure test, which recommended these two drugs, so why cover the test and then refuse to cover the drugs it recommends??
All-in-all, though, I’ve been happy with the policy. They have paid most claims without question. They also personally check in from time-to-time to see how Cat is faring. Granted, Craig and I joke (albeit morbidly) that, if you read between the lines, what they’re actually saying is, “Is this dog seriously still alive???? It was all well & good when we assumed she had a month or so left, but we’re 8 mos into this, and she’s costing us a fortune.!”
…Oh well. Insurance is about hedging bets, right? They lost big on this gamble — & I’m forever grateful for their failure.
FYI: If you happen to be interested in Healthy Paws, and use this link to sign up for a policy, they will donate $25 to an animal non-profit (no kickbacks to me, whatsoever — just the direct donation): https://refer.healthypawspetinsurance.com/r25zh
