When Alyson Dutch’s yellow Labrador encountered not one but two rattlesnakes this spring, she was glad she had pet insurance.
The dog, named Sullivan, had his first run-in with a rattler in March in a neighbor’s avocado grove. Anti-venom serum and other treatment for the bite on his nose cost $1,500. A month later, Sullivan walked into another rattler, this time on a hiking trail. The veterinarian’s bill was $925.
Dutch, a 40-year-old publicist from Malibu, Calif., said her pet insurance covered 60 percent of the bills.
“Let’s face it, I’d do anything – pay anything – to make him get better,” she said of her 31/2-year-old dog.
More and more pet owners are buying pet insurance, which comes in two basic forms.
Dutch has a comprehensive health and accident indemnity policy from Veterinary Pet Insurance of Brea, Calif., one of the largest pet policy underwriters in the nation. Her policy with a rider for routine vet care costs about $425 a year, she said.
The other form of insurance is more like the preferred provider organization, or PPO, that humans use for health care. Often offered as an employee benefit, PPO coverage for pets gives owners discounts at vets who agree to participate in a care network.
Sharon Curtis Granskog, spokeswoman for the American Veterinary Medical Association in Schaumburg, Ill., said pet insurance “can make some treatments economically feasible” that otherwise would be out of reach for some consumers.
The group, which represents the nation’s veterinarians, encourages coverage “for health maintenance as well as for illness and accidents.”
Still, not everyone needs to invest in pet insurance, said Robert Hunter, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, which is based in Washington, D.C.
Hunter has had dogs around him all his life and currently has a retriever and three Schipperke dogs, also known as “little skippers.”
“Dogs aren’t people,” Hunter said. “You have to have insurance on your children, on your wife, on yourself. But you don’t have to have it on your pets.”
He argued, too, that there are so many animals in need of rescue “that it’s hard to advocate spending thousands of dollars on an old dog who’s very sick … when a lot of healthy young dogs are put to death every day because there is no home for them.”
Still, Hunter said, he could understand pet owners who invest in insurance, especially if they have very valuable dogs or are so attached to them that “they would spend thousands rather than have a dog euthanized or they couldn’t sleep at night worrying about their pets.”
Dr. Aine McCarthy, a veterinarian in marketing for Veterinary Pet Insurance, said the main reason people buy pet insurance is so “they won’t be unprepared when they’re faced with the cost of an unexpected accident or illness.”
Most policies, she said, covered vet examination fees, hospitalization, anesthesia and surgical charges, and prescription medication.
She said that the premium for a dog averages about $20 a month for health and accident coverage, while a rider for routine care would add about $100 a year. Premiums for cats are generally less.
Premiums depend on the age of the pet, the plan selected and the state the person lives in, she said.
But consumers need to be aware that most policies exclude pre-existing conditions as well as hereditary problems. In other words, if the breed of dog is susceptible to hip problems, coverage of hip care may be excluded.
Charlotte Reed, who runs the Two Dogs &A Goat pet care company in New York City, has an apartment full of pets, including a golden retriever, a cocker spaniel, two cats and “a bunch of finches.”
Reed said she bought pet insurance for her cocker spaniel, Kidder, when he was about 5 years old. But Kidder had suffered an eye problem before she bought the insurance, so when he had a recurrence later the insurance wouldn’t cover the care.
That’s one reason she recommends that pet owners consider purchasing policies when their pets are “leaving adolescence and getting into adulthood” with its greater likelihood of medical problems.
“If you’re not sure, ask your vet,” Reed said.
Gail Buchwald, a vice president with the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, said that the main reason people give up pets is that the animal gets sick and the owner can’t afford the medical bills. She added: “Pets incur about half of medical costs in the last couple years of life, and you can plan for that.”
She suggested that pet owners put several dollars a week into a piggy bank or other safe place.
“Then you have that cushion when a pet gets sick,” Buchwald said.
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