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| Yes | 68% | 130 votes | Total: 191 votes | |
| No | 32% | 61 votes |
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Add to FavoritesWhen my daughter got her got her Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy, we all enjoyed having him at home, a playful little thing with a clumsy way that made you laugh and was a joy to have about. She bought him with her money from her wages as she had wanted a dog for a long time, but I was adamant over the years that if she wanted a dog she had to wait until she was old enough to be able to look after one herself, after all a dog is a huge responsibility for a child to take on.
They are for life and need love and commitment. So she saved and bought him when she was eighteen. He is her dog but lives here with us as she is still at home and she has been brilliant with him. Trained him from an early puppy to be a very obedient young dog now that he is two years old.
He will sit and wait patiently as she makes his food in his dish, he never begs and lays down in another room when we are eating at the table, you can even leave food on a plate on the front room table and go out for the day and he won't pinch it. He sits in the window waiting for her if she goes out and is a really loving dog.
As a responsible dog owner, when he got to be one year old she began to think about having him castrated, she did not want him to breed with other dogs as the thought of him having puppies and not knowing where the puppies had been homed to was a bit worrying for her, as he is a good looking brindle dog with a little white on his chest and a bulky staffie, she was getting asked for him to be a stud dog by a few people in town. She couldn't bear to think that one of his offspring might be homed to someone who may not treat it right and it end up in a dogs home, so she decided the best thing to do was have him castrated at the vets.
After spending money on his injections when he was younger and worming tablets and his regular check ups at the vets, she decided to buy pet insurance. I have a car policy with Endsleigh and have been happy with them for a few years so we checked out the pet insurance with them.
It's a costly thing to have a dog as vet fees are not cheap. The castration of a dog costs 180 at our local vets, add this to the worming tablets, regular check ups of weight and health when they are growing up and their injections and your looking at more than 400. This is without including any ailments that they might have in their life to come.
We bought a policy from Endsleigh for 112.09 a year. You may think this sounds a lot but it is broken down into monthly payments which can be paid by direct debit every month at 9. 34. This is for cover for life and it covers up to 1000 of vet fees and this is peace of mind when anything goes wrong with your pet.
To date Mampi Swift has been to the vets, for sensitive skin which was due to an allergic reaction to some additives in his dog food. Vet fees 240 as it took three visits to the vets to find what was causing the reaction and to clear it up with the medication. The insurance paid up within three weeks of the claim, we had to pay the first 50 excess.
He was loves to chew twigs and wood and when visiting a friends house who has bamboo in their garden he couldn't resist having a nibble at a piece that had snapped off in the winds and was on the floor, I'm not sure why but this made him sick for a few days, so another trip to the vets at 85 was claimed.
He has just gone two years old and has already been to the vets a couple of times for ailments and I'm sure its not the last time he'll go.
The insurance policy has already saved us money on vet fees and medicines for him and I'm glad we got pet insurance for him as it has been a good decision to have. If you have a dog I'm sure its worth thinking about, after all you never know when they will be ill. We also have cover if he causes damage to a third party of up to 1000,000 and he is covered for travel of up to 30 days overseas.
We have a bronze policy which is just a basic one but you can go silver or gold for more cover, but these cost a little more. They do however, cover more things like, early death, advertising if you have your pet stolen, accidents, theft, bereavement counselling for you if you lose your pet and other things, but we just wanted to be covered for the vet fee's as they can occur anytime in a dogs life.
I think getting your pet insured is a good idea, you never know when your pet will bring extra costs to the household budget.
Learn more about this author, Sunnysmiles.
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No
Living in the "auto belt" - where the local livelihoods all depended on the deep pockets of the auto industry of the 50's, 60's and 70's - I've seen what having health insurance has done to the cost and the quality, of health care. When "someone else" is paying, the practitioners worry less about what they charge - after all the patient isn't paying - and why not prescribe that more expensive medicine or recommend surgery, rather than recommending exercise and diets.
The result is, the cost of medical care has skyrocketed, to have even basic care you need insurance, and people are less healthy because they know they can take a pill rather than a walk, or have surgery AND that second helping of pie.
And the insurance companies are not only getting rich off our premiums, they are controlling what medical care we can receive. Even over the instructions of their patients, doctors and hospitals are performing procedures that are unnecessary and unwarranted - and charging the insurance companies who in turn raise rates.
But what does this have to do with pet health insurance?
First, not everyone can afford the premiums, although most can afford reasonable health care for their pets. Keeping a pet isn't expensive, you don't have to worry about college or a wrecked car, they don't need designer clothes or cell phones. I have three dogs and the cost of food and licenses is nothing - the cost of their yearly checkups, vaccinations and preventatives is well over the cost of their annual food bill. If I had to pay insurance premiums for basic emergency care, which would NOT cover the vaccinations, it would double the cost of my annual pet medical bill.
Second, there's already skewing of the price of medications for pets versus farm animals. The same wormer is used for goats and dogs - the dog wormer is many times more expensive. I was once charged $20 dollars for an injection that turned out to be the equivalent of two Benadryl tablets. Once insurance is covering the costs, these abuses will become more blatant, and only the drug companies, vets and insurance companies will benefit. Anyone without insurance won't be able to afford the cost. Recently, one of my dogs and I had to go in for a similar problem - her medicine was 10 times more than mine, and the office call was twice as much - unscrupulous vets and insurance companies know we are suckers for our animals, and will pay anything to keep them with us
Third, humans refuse to accept the inevitability of death, and too many wait too long to let their pets die in comfort and with dignitary. Having insurance that allows owners to keep their pets alive long past the point of reason will add to the suffering of hundreds of animals. Already there are hospice facilities for pets - places for terminally ill animals to live out their days - WITHOUT their humans caring for them!?
Fourth, our pets will suffer from the same foolish lack of preventative care we impose upon ourselves. Regular exercise and a healthy diet would help to prevent numerous problems, but it's easier to take an expensive prescription or have surgery (both paid for by insurance) than it is to take care of ourselves. How many behavioral problems in dogs are caused by a lack of exercise - and now our dogs need Prozac? Most dogs I know would be happier with a long walk than a pill - and most Americans need that long walk as much as their dogs do.
Fifth, unlike humans, animals enjoy the benefit of special food created by pet food companies - BIG companies. If you've ever needed a prescription diet for your cat or dog, you'll not only be appalled by the price, but by the look on you're pet's face when they are asked to eat the stuff. In many cases, a better, more palatable and less expensive diet can be provided by feeding a more basic, more natural diet, and many people report excellent results with raw food diets. Raw food diets can't be controlled or exploited or controlled by the insurance companies or the pet food companies, so of course vets will be encouraged to discourage them.
Finally, insurance companies control what treatments human patients can receive, either directly or indirectly. If we pay the monthly insurance premium and are told our pet doesn't qualify for a necessary surgery, will we be able to justify paying out of pocket? If we're told our pet won't benefit from an expensive treatment, is it because the insurance company doesn't want to pay? Do you want your pets health care dictated by an accountant a thousand miles away, or do you want to work with your veterinarian (who is under no pressure from insurance companies, drug companies or pet food companies) to find the best solution for you and your animal?
By buying into pet health insurance, you are buying into more expensive treatment and more unnecessary treatment. Keep your pet (and yourself) healthy with good food and exercise, work with your vet if you need time to pay, and save a bit every week to cover the cost of your pets medical bills. And don't succumb to the lure of pet health insurance.
Learn more about this author, Pat Gray.
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