Lennon with a branch from our Willow tree – his favorite toy from the backyard.
Have you ever had to choose between saving your soulmate and putting food on your table? Because I have.
I know it’s likely that anyone stumbling across this blog is an animal lover, particularly dogs. So most of you have had a pet in your life that you have connected with on a very special level and can relate to that feeling. My husband and I moved out of our first apartment together to rent a house with a yard just so we could have a dog – and we brought Lennon home the very day after we moved in. Both of us grew up with dogs in our families, but neither of us had ever felt a love for our pup the way that we did for Lennon. He became our child, our best friend, and the brightest light in our home and in our hearts.
So when we found out at just five years old that he had Lymphoma and a projected week or two to live without treatment, I am sure you can imagine how devastated we were. I’ll never forget the receptionist handing me the clipboard with all of those numbers on it – numbers that were merely estimates. Numbers that would cost us more than our entire year’s rent for our home, if you combined them. Numbers that I had never seen before, not in the context of owing that amount to someone…and certainly never with the stipulation that if I don’t have that money, I would lose my best friend. Until that moment, I didn’t realize that there could be a literal price tag on love. And when my husband said, “We have to give him a chance,” I knew he was right.
Lennon went on to receive 3 rounds of chemo treatment and live an additional 2.5 years with us – and 90% of that time was happy and without suffering. We lost him in 2016 after a long battle that cost us approximately $30,000 when it was all said and done…and I have only one regret: I wish we would have known sooner how important it was to have pet insurance.
This pup seems to want to take matters into its own hands… Credit: Google
It would be easy to say that pet insurance is just like human insurance – and to a degree, that is true. But let’s be honest – there’s a lot about human health insurance that many of us don’t really understand or have access to, either. Terms like: copay, deductible, premium, out of pocket maximum, network, reimbursement…these are all important and directly impact how your policy works and whether or not it is the best one for you and your pet! So…where do you start??
Luckily, sites like Money.com have put together incredible resources like this one to help with this exact question. Depending on your specific need, one pet insurance provider may be a better fit for you than another. This guide can truly help, as it breaks down the best pet insurance providers out there and explains exactly why, all backed up by extensive research.
We knew that we never wanted to have to face the turmoil of saving our pet while struggling to pay our bills again. We adopted Butters after Lennon’s first round of chemo was complete and he was in his first remission because we wanted Lennon to have a buddy to keep him young and spry! But, we also learned from Lennon and we wanted to be sure to cover our new pup with pet insurance – so we went about investigating what the best policy and plan was before we even brought Butters home.
It’s important to establish a plan with a pet insurance company when your pup is young, because most plans will not cover any pre-existing conditions (sicknesses your pet had before signing up for the insurance). That meant that once Lennon was diagnosed with his cancer, we couldn’t sign up and have his treatment covered – but if he had already been protected at the time of diagnosis, we could have saved a LOT of money. Like…$27,000 worth of money. 😲🤯 But who’s counting?
A glimpse at just ONE of the bills from Butters’ injury…and some pics of Lennon and Butters playing together.
Here are some of the things that my husband and I looked for when we were searching for our pet insurance provider:
– How much will each plan reimburse? This will tell you how much money you can get back on a claim. Usually, this will be in terms of percentage – the higher your reimbursement percentage, the better!
– How much will it cost me in premiums and is there a deductible? The premium is the price of your policy that you will pay monthly, while the deductible is a dollar amount you must pay out of pocket before the coverage will start to kick in.
– Does the plan cover multiple pets and is there a cost difference to do so?
– What is and is not covered? Routine exams, vaccinations and preventative care are NOT generally covered by pet insurance – so what is? Your policy will outline what services are covered and which are not, so read it carefully!
– Does it cover my type of pet? Some insurances don’t cover specialty or exotic pets! So make sure your species is listed.
– How hard is it to submit a claim? Some insurances have apps and websites to submit through, while some need to be done via USPS mail, or require a veterinarian to push through the paperwork, which can delay your reimbursement. You want a company that will make it easy on you so you can focus on taking care of your best friend!
Seeking out pet insurance can feel daunting – but it’s worth the time investment to save your money and protect your pet(s) in the long run. After everything we went through with Lennon, we decided to go with the provider Money.com also recommends – Healthy Paws – for Butters! We knew we wanted to be more prepared if anything ever happened like it did with Lennon – and it has already paid off! In 2018, Butters had a freak accident in our back yard (I’ll spare you the details and pics) but he needed surgery and wound care for over a month – costing upwards of $10,000. Thanks to our Healthy Paws coverage, we only paid 10% of that out of pocket, and Butters is completely healed and happy as can be!
We all want our puppies to grow into senior dogs with sweet sugar faces – pet insurance can help make sure that happens!
If there’s anything we have learned together this year in 2020, it’s that you can’t predict what is around the corner, no matter how hard you try! That goes for everyone and everything – including our precious pets. Many people adopted pets and added four legged family members to help ease the quarantine blues – please consider insuring your pet so that you can be just a little more prepared for whatever may or may not come around the bend. So, while I’ll spare you the list of “bad things that could prompt you to need to use your pet insurance,” just keep in mind what you already know – your fur baby’s love is priceless.