On the fence about whether to add another kind of insurance to your regular expenses? You’re definitely not alone. It took me a few years to be convinced – until it was actually almost too late. It can certainly seem like there are already too many kinds of insurance out there being thrown in your face on just about a daily basis, but insuring your dog is a little different. You wouldn’t skip out on health insurance for your kid, so why are you considering doing so for your dog? Health insurance comes with the peace of mind that in case of an emergency, your kid is covered. And even if there’s not an emergency, just something you may want to get checked out, you can do that too. When we’re insured, we – or our kids, or our dogs – are much more likely to get any kind of care, leading to a healthier life overall. It doesn’t just have to be for emergencies.
So, outside of emergencies, if you’re struggling to think of why dog insurance might really be worth it, here’s a short list to get you started and help as you make your decision.
You’ll Save Money
This is, of course, the main argument for getting any kind of insurance: in the case of a “what if” actually happening, you’re covered. You won’t blow your entire savings overnight at an emergency room, and you’ll have the peace of mind from knowing that you can afford the life-saving care that your dog needs. It can be a tough sell to convince people to spend money on something that may never happen. In this case, it’s spending money on a future emergency that most people would rather not even consider. But to not do so is to fail both your bank account and your dog. Accidents happen, illness happens, and pets age. When your puppy is young and energetic and seems like it could survive anything (and eat anything) with no consequences, it can be hard to imagine one of those worst-case-scenarios could ever possibly happen. But unfortunately, they can, whether it be years later in your pets life or sooner. The bottom line is that at some point, as a caring dog owner, you’ll have to make visits to the vet for one reason or another. Why not remove all stress of the cost and just insure your dog, so those visits can be as easy as possible for everyone involved?
You Can Get Your Dog Preventative Care
Not only can you save money in case of an emergency, but you can also tack preventative care onto your dog insurance plan to help prevent those emergencies as much as possible. A wellness plan for dogs includes a lot of things that just an accident and illness plan doesn’t, as its purpose is to optimize your dog’s wellness so he can be as happy and healthy as possible. And the benefit to you? A healthy dog isn’t spending much time at the vet. But in order to get that healthy dog, you’ll want to get preventative care, including vaccinations and boosters, teeth cleaning, physical exams, deworming, nail trimming, flea control and prevention, spaying or neutering, and more. A few trips to the vet for insurance-covered preventative care will save you many, many trips to the vet further down the road.
Easier to Budget for Emergencies
Factoring the potential cost of emergencies into your budget isn’t ever easy, but it can be made at least a little easier with dog insurance. Without dog insurance or other kinds of insurance, you never know when you’re going to be throwing away $100 vs. $1,000 or more when an accident happens. In the case of your dog, you can try to budget, but if there’s an illness, it could be a quick fix by antibiotics or it could require several follow-up visits to a vet, and if it’s an accident, the after-care can add hundreds to the cost of an initial emergency room visit. The bottom line is without insurance, it’s nearly impossible to have a real idea of how much you need to budget for an emergency. With dog insurance, however, you’ll have a deductible, a premium, and a general idea of how much is going to come out of your own pocket if something happens, regardless of the nature of the incident. Even if emergency surgery is required, you’ll know that you’re likely going to get thousands back from your dog insurance, and you’ll only really be paying around a certain amount no matter what happens. Without insurance, these are all question marks that could ruin your budget and your savings in the blink of an eye. If you care about budgeting and planning out your finances, dog insurance is a smart and worthy expense to have.
You Can Pick Your Vet
There are a lot of aspects of pet insurance that are, frankly, much better than human health insurance. It sometimes makes me wonder why we aren’t just modeling our health insurance off of pet insurance. But a specific example is the ability to pick your vet. A contrast to human health insurance, where only specific doctors may accept the brand of insurance you end up with, dog insurance instead allows you to pick your vet, go to your appointment, and get reimbursed after. Vets aren’t really involved in the insurance process at all; the middleman is cut out. You just get your dog the medical care (or preventative care!) he needs, then you get reimbursed up to a certain amount (or the whole amount, depending on your plan and the care your dog gets that day). There’s no research involved to find out where your pet insurance will work or who will accept it. You can pick a vet you trust, a vet you have history with, and nothing needs to change once your dog becomes insured. It’s easy as pie.
Access To Care You Didn’t Know Existed
Signing up for dog insurance will give you access to a world of pet healthcare you didn’t know existed. Most of us consider our pet to be a part of the family. And, as with all your family members, you want them to have the best treatment and care when needed so they can have a smooth, happy, healthy life. If your child has an injury, you want them to get physical therapy (or the appropriate after care) so they can heal properly and prevent further injury. The same kinds of things exist for dogs. There’s physical therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, laser therapy and more – all meant to ensure your dog is living the healthiest and most pain-free life possible. Without dog insurance, getting this kind of care is just about unheard of. But with dog insurance? It’s covered.
