What is best pet insurance for dogs
Pet Insurance: What it costs, what it covers, and how to find the best
did you know that 100 million of the
roughly 160 million US households have
pets that's a pretty high number but
what's not a high number is that only 2%
of dog owners in 0.5% of cat owners have
pet insurance recently we adopted a pet
his name is Leo he's half border collie
half golden retriever so I have been
doing a lot of research about pet
insurance and I wanted to share
everything in this video that I learned
and right away I do want to recommend
pet insurance not only that by the end
of this video I'm going to let you know
which pet insurance company we selected
in Y as well as give you eight other pet
insurance recommendations that I found
through research I'm also going to break
down a lot of the terms associated with
pet insurance and how to save money when
you're looking so that you can get the
best rate for what you need and the goal
here ultimately is to help save you
money in the long run and as you know
pets can be extremely expensive in fact
the American Kennel Club did a study and
found out the pets cost anywhere from
twenty three thousand dollars to forty
thousand dollars in the lifetime of that
pet that's a lot of money and of course
there are required costs like the cost
of the pet itself the pet food pet toys
that visits and shots bleach collar all
that good stuff
then there's optional costs as well
things like more toys the crazy cat
hotel climbing thing clothes more
clothes and then the big optional cost
pet insurance which obviously most
people decline now depending on your
pets ailment when you bring your pet to
the vet studies show that costs are
gonna range anywhere from 100 to up to a
thousand dollars per visit so how do you
protect your furry little friend without
breaking the bank
that's what this video is all about
because as I found in research there
really is a lot to unpack when it comes
to pet insurance it is all over the
board in terms of cost and what it
covers and what it doesn't cover but
before we go on what's up guys my name
is Frankie this is the money resolution
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you'd like first of all I've never had
pet insurance and this is one of the
bigger regrets looking back that I have
with my first cat that I had I had a
three thousand dollar surgery emergency
I had to pay for out of pocket and with
my dog I had the same type of situation
where it ended up costing about $7,000
out of pocket and I was originally
quoted ten to fifteen thousand dollars
so obviously I am sold on getting pet
insurance for Leo and this is why we
started researching but I had a lot of
questions like is it better to get
insurance for him now when he's young is
that gonna save me the most money over
time and also what are the best ways to
save money what should I be looking for
exactly when it comes to pet insurance
let's dive into that and let's talk
first about how pet insurance works and
what it cost now one major way that pet
insurance is different from regular
human health insurance is that with pet
insurance in most cases almost all cases
you are going to be responsible for
covering the charges out-of-pocket then
you submit your claims and you're gonna
get reimbursed after the fact and don't
expect to get that money right away
generally speaking what I've seen out
there doing research is it's gonna take
anywhere from roughly seven days to up
to two months also speaking of timing
you cannot just sign up and start using
that insurance the same day generally
there is sort of a waiting period of two
to three weeks and that's of course to
prevent people from signing up just
because they notice that their dog might
be sick or ill or injured or cat now
when it comes to submitting that claim
you are in almost all cases not gonna
get 100% of the cost back to you you're
gonna get on average anywhere from
seventy to eighty to ninety percent back
and that's because you're gonna be
responsible for what's called a copay
more on that in a moment going back to
my earlier question yes the younger your
pet is generally speaking the cheaper
your pet insurance is going to be there
are several things that come into play
when determining the rate you're going
to receive on your insurance so what
type of dog where you live how old the
dog is any pre-existing conditions and
those are the big ones according to the
North American pet health insurance
who knew there was such a thing the
average monthly price is going to be 47
dollars a month for dogs
that's your premium or roughly $30 a
month for cats and the best way to get
started in terms of just determining
costs and getting comparisons is to
start applying for free quotes online in
most cases all you got to do is hand
over your email address to get that free
quote and in terms of how much it covers
I already mentioned that it's not going
to be 100% of the cost but the main
reason I recommend you have health
insurance is so that you never have to
make a life-and-death decision when it
comes to your dog or cat with money
being a strong factor on the line the
choice is going to be made for you
because you're covered so run the
numbers all you want in terms of if you
need it or not
until something major and serious
happens that is when you need it the
most
so when is the best time to sign up for
pet insurance well that's when your pet
is 100% healthy not when something
happens to your pet in fact in a lot of
cases you could be denied altogether if
you do have a serious pre-existing
condition not you your pet so think of
something like a broken bone or again
something that's life-threatening but a
lot of times if your pet does have
something that's pre-existing health
insurance will cover everything else but
not help out when it comes to that
pre-existing condition again though the
best time to get health insurance for
your pet is before you need it I
realized that I've already thrown out
several terms related to pet insurance
and I want to make sure that I take a
moment to sort of define what those are
because they're gonna keep coming up
over and over again and the first one is
premiums so this is how much you're
gonna pay out-of-pocket monthly and
generally the more comprehensive your
insurances the more you're gonna pay in
premiums monthly so the more that is
covered the more you're gonna pay
second is deductible so this is the
amount of money you're gonna have to pay
out-of-pocket before any amount of
insurance kicks in this is a lot like
human health insurance and generally
speaking the higher the deductible the
lower the premium and vice-versa
most deductibles start around $100 but
anywhere in the $200 to $500 range is
common $250 is about average so annually
you're going to need to come
the first $250 before any insurance
kicks in next up is copay so this is the
percentage that you're gonna have to
cover that insurance is not going to
reimburse each time you're making a
claim in almost all cases you're still
gonna have to cover a tiny percent of
that issue if you're keeping track that
means you're gonna owe the premium
monthly you're gonna owe a deductible
annually then once you meet the
deductible you're also going to a
percentage of the cost which is called
your copay the next term I want to make
sure you're familiar with is what's
called caps and limits this is the
amount of money that an insurance
company is willing to cover in any given
year or sometimes the length of the
entire policy some have no caps and no
limits meaning that there is no limit on
the amount of money that they're willing
to reimburse over the length of that
policy but a lot of them do have a cap
so definitely keep an eye out for how
much they're willing to pay out either
on an annual basis or even the lifetime
of the policy and then finally it's
exclusions this is something you're
going to want to look for this is
usually a list that's provided of things
that are not going to be covered in any
case by that insurance company
exclusions can vary widely obviously
we've already covered that pre-existing
conditions are almost never going to be
covered outside of that though look for
a list of what else is not going to be
covered in your policy
okay let's talk insurance coverage types
for the most part there are - there's
going to be comprehensive and accident
wellness and routine is the third one
but that one's actually not very common
these are your typical that visits
things like your shots your neutering
and your Spain here's what I'm gonna
start talking about specific pet
insurance companies but before we get
there I'm gonna give you a couple of
pieces of advice in terms of finding the
right policy and company for you the
first piece of advice is simply to ask
your vet what they recommend there are
lots of options out there it's a lot
like picking a cellphone carrier company
that's a quick plug for a cell phone
video I shot recently you can check out
the link above for that one but again
there are lots of companies lots of
plans and lots of choices to pick from
ask your vet what they recommend based
on their experience what a lot of other
people are using and what they might
think is best based on your pet
but my actual best piece of advice is to
do your own research and hopefully this
video is a part of that so good job but
really when you're doing your research
the main thing you want to be thinking
about is balancing coverage versus cost
so you need to be thinking about any
problems your pet has had in the past or
any potential problems that your pet is
prone to due to its breed or age this is
just gonna come down to personal
preference and a little bit of research
and knowing about your dog the age the
breed the history and trying to project
out any health issues that might happen
in the future obviously there's a lot of
unknowns there okay I've done a lot of
research on the topic so you're probably
ready for some recommendations there is
no just best one-size-fits-all plan that
I can recommend but there are several
that showed up again and again on sort
of top five top ten lists as I was
researching around for myself in
alphabetical order the ones that kept
coming up the most is highly recommended
this is as of early 2020 our embrace by
go healthy paws nationwide pedda sure
pet first pet plan pets best and true
panin these are the ones that I've seen
over and over again and on-screen here
I'm gonna give you a little bit more
information some screen grabs in case
you want to pause it and read a little
bit more about some of these I pulled
these all from sites that I definitely
trust and recommend regardless of which
one you go with what you also probably
want to know is how can I save on my
insurance policy so in this next section
of the video I'm gonna give you five
ways that you can save potentially on
your pet insurance plan the first tip
I'm gonna give you is to take on more
risk so if you want to keep your premium
your monthly payment to a minimum you're
gonna need to take on more risk when it
comes to your deductible and your
co-pays there are some companies out
there like true panin where you can
literally use a slider and you'll see
how these sort of offset with one
another and you can be very specific for
your deductible and your copay and see
how that impacts your premium so you pay
less right now monthly but you take on
more risk if something happens in the
future
next is to
work for the right employer so this is
one of the fastest-growing benefits for
employers to offer which is pet
insurance or over a hundred and fifty
major companies that I found in my
research that are offering this check
with your company maybe they are
offering this and you were unaware or
maybe give HR a little bit of a nudge
that this is something you'd really like
to have I found companies like Delta
Airlines t-mobile UPS Microsoft Chipotle
and a lot more are offering this
currently third is to check for
discounts so the most common discount
you're gonna find looking around is
policies that cover multiple pets but
what if you don't have multiple pets if
you are a member of a group like Triple
A or AARP sometimes you're gonna find
those discounts for you military active
duty and students are other common
discounts that I've seen out there we
were actually able to score 10% off our
policy it was 5% off just for signing up
for the policy online and another 5% off
using the plug-in honey it's a chrome
extension that helps you find promo
codes at checkout once again a quick
plug for a video I did about honey and
how you can save money on Amazon and
elsewhere next number four is to get pet
insurance when your pet is young so I
mentioned that the policies are going to
be cheaper for young pets and a lot of
times it is going to reassess annually
and go up from there but I've actually
seen that there are some policies that
allow you to lock in that premium and
that premiums never gonna go up over
time so it's rare to find those but if
you find it you might want to jump on
that especially if you have a puppy or a
kitten some plans actually won't insure
your pet once that pet is past a certain
age so that's something to keep in mind
and again the last thing you want to do
is wait until some sort of illness or
chronic conditions shows up then go
hunting for health insurance you're not
going to get the best quotes and
oftentimes it's going to be hard to find
coverage at that point and then finally
and this is the big one know what you
need so this is really gonna take some
thought and some reflection and thinking
about your dog your pets history your
age we've already covered this but as
you do your research you're gonna see a
lot of things that are included and a
lot of things that are excluded start
taking mental note of what those things
are and which are the ones that you'd
want the most before I get to the one
that we did pick there were two that
came in just sure and we were very
to picking and that was healthy pause
and true pan Yin a couple friend of ours
also just got a puppy recently and after
some research they ended up going with a
nationwide and I think that's actually
one of the biggest out there so there's
a few you might want to be thinking
about but the one that we ended up going
with was pet plan here was my list of
the things I was definitely looking for
first I wanted to make sure that we
could file claims online or via an app
second I wanted to make sure that there
was no limit on the amount of claims
that we could make third since our pet
is very young and very healthy I wanted
to make sure that we could keep our
premiums very low so under $50 was
essential fourth I wanted illness and
accident covered but wellness was sort
of optional and I knew that that wasn't
likely next was that I didn't want any
sort of cap or at the very least a very
high annual cap I also wanted the
deductible to be annual not per incident
and finally very important to me was
that cancer and scans would be included
in this policy so our deductible is
gonna be 300 dollars annually our cost
our premium monthly is just $37 so it
checks that box of keeping that low but
again this was after we were able to
earn 10% off our annual reimbursement
cap is $15,000 so that felt definitely
high enough for us and then it covers
accidents injuries illness surgery and
Rehab cancer treatment and all scans as
well everything that we're looking for
it even covered emergency dental like
broken teeth lost and found advertising
and rewards vacation reimbursement which
okay cool and we get reimbursed within
30 days but generally I've seen from
other people online they were reimbursed
within a week okay so there you have it
this video was extremely dense so number
one it might be super useful to go back
and re-watch this but at the very least
I hope that I armed you with the
information you need for picking a pet
policy and keeping your cost down
hopefully I gave you a bunch of good
starting points when it comes to picking
a policy overall and number three
ultimately I hope I convinced you that
you do indeed need health insurance for
your pet or pets again this is up to you
which one you're gonna pick based on
your needs and situations and personal
preferences but one thing to do is to
ask the vet and the other thing to do of
course is to do your own research down
below in the description I'm going to
leave links to all nine
I believe companies that I recommended
in this video along with a few articles
that I used in terms of research for
myself and for this video like this
video if you got some value out of it it
does mean a lot to me if you want more
from me in the money resolution be sure
to subscribe I do put out videos weekly
drop a comment down below if you do have
any thoughts or questions I do try to
reply to every single comment and the
last thing is to share this with a
friend if you know somebody else that
could use this information especially
those of us that just adopted a pet
recently and kudos to you if that to you
and you adopted a pet I saw a video the
other day of a shelter and they were
celebrating because every single one of
the pets had been adopted so it's really
cool to see adoption rate go up thanks
as always for watching especially this
far once again my name is Frankie this
is the money resolution and I'll see you
guys in the next one oh but don't go
anywhere just yet here is a quick little
video montage of our puppy leo
in case you just want some puppy footage
to make your name thanks guys
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yep you got
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the chosen
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okay
you
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