It is widely known that pet health insurance policies and plans are available in plenty for your dear loving pets. The key to get the right policy is time consuming. To get a Birdseye view about your options helps you narrow down your choices and take the ultimate decision worth your concern.
Mainly the insurance plans can be categorized into four, traditional, customizable, accident only and discount. Traditional policies are standard pet health insurance plans that offer design options that cover pet illness, accidents and preventive care. Based on the chosen plan your insurance company will pay all or part of your vet bills up to a pre determined amount. The customizable set of insurance plans is like traditional policies except that it offers more freedom in terms of mixing and matching the necessary provisions such as deductibles, co-insurance percentage, maximum annual coverage amount and co-pays. The third set is accidents alone where cover is only for accidents and not for illness or preventive care. The fourth set is the discount plans, where you can take the pet to any veterinarian or hospital within the network of hospitals the insurance company opts. You will receive a discount on the services obtained.
The type of pet insurance you would opt depends on your budget, the age of your pet which includes checking of any pre-existing conditions, pet's breed and your veterinarian. The common exclusions in pet insurance are:
- Hereditary conditions which depends on the policy and if at all it is covered it will be covered at a lower level.
- Congenial conditions are not covered due its pre existence. They include patellar luxation, entropion, ectropion, liver shunt etc.
- Fleas and parasites are included in some insurance policies and are in the form of preventive medications against parasites which might not include eradication of parasites.
- Preventable diseases and chosen procedures like getting a vaccination to prevent diseases are generally not covered.
- Dental care is provided in case of any accidents but dental preventive care like teeth cleaning is not generally under coverage.
- Pre-Existing Conditions is common to see in the category of exclusion in pet insurance as it is for human insurance. Any pre-existing condition your pet has before the policy start date does not come under insurance cover. This includes conditions that may not have been diagnosed till date and just because you have not identified such pre conditions by taking it to the vet and are unaware of the condition, the plan does not guarantee that you will get covered for the particular condition.
Some companies will allow you to cover these potential problems with an additional payment. In some cases the local veterinarian will be able to warn you about any exclusion. Getting the right pet health insurance just needs careful overview of the plans that suit your pet and you budget.
