Puppy Insurance and new member

Just wanted to second that none of them are perfect, bc the industry is totally unregulated. We have had Healthy Paws for Charlie since he was young, so by the time I realized the issue with exams not being covered (when he started having annual $250+ cardiologist appts 3 years ago), we were ‘stuck’ because he had a number of pre-existing conditions. It’s still worth it for us, as they’ve covered a lot the last few years (including the echo, which is much more expensive than the office visit) but when we brought home our new puppy, we went with Embrace in part because office visits are covered. That said, I do think sometimes vets will work with you on how the invoice shows up if they can. For example, when I took C in for a visit w the rehab vet for his back, HP initially wouldn’t cover it, but then when the vet shared that they actually did rehab exercises (which was a part of the appt) they covered the whole thing.

I have Pets Best insurance and highly recommend it. My dog has been very unlucky with her eyes and was diagnosed with juvenile cataracts when she was three. The doctors saw a cataract in both eyes but only one was advancing and due to the risks with surgery, the doctor wanted to only perform surgery on the advancing cataract in hopes that the other eye would never need it. After cataract surgery on the first eye, the insurance company paid it without any issues. Then only three months later the cataract on the other eye started advancing and we had to do another surgery. I expected the insurance company to try to fight payment since we could have just done both eyes at the same time (and it would have been much less expensive that way) but they again paid it without question.

A year or so later the first eye had a retinal detachment and another surgery was needed to reattach it. Pets Best paid it without any pushback.

Eight months or so later, that eye developed glaucoma and stopped responding to drops to keep the eye pressure low. My dog lost her vision in that eye and was in pain due to the elevated pressure in the eye. Another surgery was needed and this time we had three options: remove the eye entirely, do an injection that would remove the pain but would cause the eye to shrink very small and the procedure might possibly have to be repeated, or replace the inner part of the eye with a prosthetic (removes the part that makes the eye painful and the outer portion of the eye remains in place to look as normal as possible). My vet really recommended the last option as it's the most cosmetic but it was also the most expensive. We decided to go with the last option and again, I anticipated pushback from the insurance company (and was prepared to be out of pocket if they declined to pay it), but they paid it with no question asked.

I have really appreciated the peace of mind that pet insurance has provided. I never anticipated going through all of this with our dog and thought I had done my due diligence when researching breeders and checking the parents' health records. When I got pet insurance it was really just intended to be in case of an accident. I didn't expect any problems medically but there can always be surprises.

The one negative I will say about Pets Best is that the turnaround time for claims can be slow. You may wait several weeks to a month for reimbursement. But they have been very easy to deal with throughout all of our ordeals.

You can have an accident/illness plan with them or do a wellness plan which includes a yearly teeth cleaning, routine vaccines, etc. I did both because the wellness plan seems to pay for itself in my area. (When I added up the cost of the normal yearly visits, it was pretty much the same cost to add the insurance.) But the plans are very flexible so you can pick something that works with your budget.

I feel so grateful that while we were dealing with all of this throughout the past few years, I was able to make the best choice for my dog and not have to make a decision based on cost because I knew we had insurance. So whatever company you decide to go with, I just recommend that you do get insurance because you really never know what will happen. Good luck to you!