Just looking at pet insurance for our 6 year old dog. No previous medical conditions to speak of. But insurance cost is not really proportionate to their risk. "What you talking about Willis?" To insure my bike fully comp is £180 with a £450 XS. Just think of the damage you can do with a Fireblade in just one go. £100,000s easily, more of there's bodily injury to someone, it could run into millions. So I don't think it reasonable for Pet Plan (or the others) to ask for £993.72 a year for £12000 a year cover. TBH £12k a year is a lot of cover on vet bills, but it can happen. Yes, she could bite someone or even a few people, but that is unlikely as she has never shown a tendency for such traits, this is a question on the proposal form anyway. So I've shopped around and the most amount many of the insurance companies want to shell out is around £3000 per year on vet bills, this is a variable and you get to choose your annual vet coverage. But really, what is their risk for those premiums?
The rate vet bills rack up never ceases to amaze me, few months ago one of the rabbits looked like it was ready for the pot, but the wife took it to vets, a couple of nights stay and it was released back to us, to me it looked worse than when it went in, on return they did an MRI and could see a blockage in the gut, a few more days stay and released see back to us, looking a bit brighter, she survived ( the rabbit not the wife !) but at the cost of an £1800 bill, of which the MRI was £600, but it’s the add ins that kill you, syringes, saline drip lines, and the 400-500% mark up on drugs. 2K was the insurance cover, so at £12 a month it proved to be a bargain, problem is it was only 2 months into the policy, so Bugs Bunny is staring down the barrel now until renewal time.
Just hope that anything they pay out for doesn't reoccur as it is normally excluded from a policy 1 year after the condition is resolved. Missus used to work at a Vets and the price of treatment can be horrendous, but what is the alternative?
Another thing to remember is as your dog gets older the level of cover reduces, the cost increases and your excess will also increase. There comes a point where you have to consider weather it's worth sticking the premiums in an account. I use Animal Friends pet insurance £63.72 per annum for 4 year old cocker spaniel plus we have pet club cover at our vet for flea and worm treatment and all vaccinations, 6 month health check, 10% off all vet bills, products and services plus 20% off selected lifetime care medication at £15.39 a month.
And they wonder why people don't take animals to the vet, we had a rabbit that had broken its leg, when they estimated the eye watering vet bill poor rabbit got put down
One of our labs ruptured his Medial Crucial Ligament last year and it cost us £4000 to get him sorted...insurance was only put in place to cover £1000 So, I am looking at updating that tout suite
The costs are disproportionate because crashing our bikes is the exception, animals getting sick and dieing is the rule unfortunately. We have 2 cats who live like Kings, I wouldn't spend thousands on them though. Difficult decisions would be made once they've had a good innings and savings would be used if they hadn't.
