# What Pet Insurance do you use?



## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

This is a poll just to figure out what the majority of GSDs use for pet insurance. You can add comments about your experience with your insurance or others as well


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Healthy Paws very happy with it. Have had it since he was 10 weeks. Remind me and I'll PM you my experiences with them.


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

Jax08 said:


> Healthy Paws very happy with it. Have had it since he was 10 weeks. Remind me and I'll PM you my experiences with them.


Thanks, I'm kind of between Healthy Paws or Petplan. Petplan is cheaper if we get it right now, but I've heard they are terrible about raising their rates as the dog gets older.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

remind me later to PM you. I looked into several before choosing HP.


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## eddie1976E (Nov 7, 2010)

I would think they all raise prices annually. Mine went from $37 to $42/month. I have petplan and so far I'm happy with them. I put alot of claims so if they decide not to renew me in April, I will let everyone know. Another company did that to a friend of mine. Not cool!


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## GypsyGhost (Dec 29, 2014)

We have Trupanion for both of our dogs and are pretty happy with them. We almost ended up going with Healthy Paws for Bash, but after really looking through the policies, we decided to stick with Trupanion. Trupanion covers supplements prescribed by your vet, which Healthy paws does not. It may seem like a small thing, but Roxy has been on Welactin and Dasuquin for a while now, and that stuff gets expensive. Also, I liked having the option of choosing to have no deductible. We have made so many claims with them, and we always get a check really fast. Their customer service has been great in the past, too. I will say that our rate increase for Roxy this year was pretty insane. We still come out ahead, though, because Roxy is on a lot of medications for pain/cancer. Her meds and supplements alone would cost us about $300/month without insurance, so paying $90/month for Trupanion, then roughly $30 for the meds still saves us money. 

Bash's rate went up $2 per month this year. We'll see what happens as he gets older. 

One more thing to mention... Healthy paws covers acupuncture, chiropractic care, etc, whereas Trupanion only covers it if you add on an additional rider (for more money, of course). And, you have to have the rider before anything happens, or it's considered pre-existing. They didn't offer the rider yet when we signed Roxy up, and by the time they did offer it, she was already receiving chiropractic care and acupuncture. Now we can't use the rider, because her condition is pre-existing, even though they didn't offer the coverage before. So we have to pay for acupuncture out of pocket. It's not ideal, but what can we do?


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Alot of it is based on what your personal preferences are. HP will cover both ACL's if they tear, most only cover hte first one. They will cover HD once the criteria is met. Yearly deductible instead of per incidence.

So look at them all and see what you prefer.


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## GypsyGhost (Dec 29, 2014)

Jax08 said:


> Alot of it is based on what your personal preferences are. HP will cover both ACL's if they tear, most only cover hte first one. They will cover HD once the criteria is met. Yearly deductible instead of per incidence.
> 
> So look at them all and see what you prefer.


^^^This.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

I use Petplan mainly because they have no exclusion for injuries incurred during actual work. (Beau is a cadaver dog, Till live find) -- Healthypaws says not covered. Trupanion increases premium. I had VPI at one point and never again. Petplan is only 80% at specialists and doggie ERs so no point going for more coverage. I do high deductible as well. If I did not have that working exclusion I would choose healthy paws.

Funny thing is that both dogs are adults, good working structure (OFA, Penn hip, and other x-rays) and no health problems. I am rethinking but whenever I do, there goes a broken canine, or other injury......


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

jocoyn said:


> I use Petplan mainly because they have no exclusion for injuries incurred during actual work. (Beau is a cadaver dog, Till live find) -- Healthypaws says not covered. Trupanion increases premium. I had VPI at one point and never again. Petplan is only 80% at specialists and doggie ERs so no point going for more coverage. I do high deductible as well. If I did not have that working exclusion I would choose healthy paws.
> 
> Funny thing is that both dogs are adults, good working structure (OFA, Penn hip, and other x-rays) and no health problems. I am rethinking but whenever I do, there goes a broken canine, or other injury......


Yeah, it's just even a healthy dog can get into something when you aren't looking, and then you need to take them to the vet and have tests, and maybe even surgery.

I have a question on the working dog exclusion, I'm not sure if anybody can give me an answer here, I may need to e-mail them. We plan on doing some things for fun for Bruce, flyball, maybe agility. If we do these things, is it considered working? Or only if we compete with them?


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

This is what they say [healthy paws] Search and Rescue fall under law enforcement even if volunteer. I did discuss on the phone. 

_c. For working pets, no coverage shall apply for any condition resulting from activities related to racing, breeding, law enforcement, guarding or for any commercial use._

Someone also said HP will cover the 2nd cruciate ligament. I am not sure as this was listed as exclusion for HP (the whole policy is on their page if you drill down):

_Pre-existing cruciate ligament problems to one leg as respects the cost of future treatment for problems of the other leg;_


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

jocoyn said:


> This is what they say [healthy paws] Search and Rescue fall under law enforcement even if volunteer. I did discuss on the phone.
> 
> _c. For working pets, no coverage shall apply for any condition resulting from activities related to racing, breeding, law enforcement, guarding or for any commercial use._
> 
> ...


Yeah, I just read their policy and PetPlan, but all the words confuse me haha.


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

Trupanion I only had to put one claim in with my older cat. They have been extremely helpful and cordial on the phone. I have no other experience with them as of yet but always heard good things about them. I choose this insurance because once authorized by the vet, trupanion can pay the veterinarian direct.


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## Lykaios (Nov 18, 2015)

jocoyn said:


> Someone also said HP will cover the 2nd cruciate ligament. I am not sure as this was listed as exclusion for HP (the whole policy is on their page if you drill down):
> 
> _Pre-existing cruciate ligament problems to one leg as respects the cost of future treatment for problems of the other leg;_


Healthy Paws will only cover the 2nd cruciate ligament if the 1st incident occurs AFTER coverage started. 
If there was a cruciate ligament issue that happened before you signed up, then anything after that dealing with cruciate ligaments is considered "pre-existing" even if its the other leg. 

So if at the time you sign up, you've never had any cruciate ligament problems, you're good to go! You will get them both covered.


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

Lykaios said:


> Healthy Paws will only cover the 2nd cruciate ligament if the 1st incident occurs AFTER coverage started.
> If there was a cruciate ligament issue that happened before you signed up, then anything after that dealing with cruciate ligaments is considered "pre-existing" even if its the other leg.
> 
> So if at the time you sign up, you've never had any cruciate ligament problems, you're good to go! You will get them both covered.


The dog I'm looking to insure will only be 8 weeks old when I insure him. So unless something happens in the waiting period, he should have it all covered right?


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## joneser (Jun 9, 2014)

I've had a positive experience with PetPlan. $100 deductible, I chose them because of the coverage for knees. 
Read the fine print when you start coverage....I did not! I started his policy, took him in a few days later for gunky eyes. A few months later I got him tested for environmental allergies and PetPlan considers it a pre-existing condition because of the gunky eye visit during the 14 day waiting period. Rookie mistake


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## karma_ (Apr 23, 2012)

Proud client of Healthy Paws since 2011. After those 4 years, the monthly rate has only been increased by $10 -- with 3 claims, none of which went past the $500 deductible. Unfortunately, I was a bit late to the pet insurance party and enrolled just a bit after his 6th birthday, so no HD coverage for him. Although, fortunately, he hasn't needed it and is nearing his 11th birthday


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## Benny and Me (Dec 21, 2015)

I had used Pet Plan in the past and was very pleased with it. I now use Trupanion simply because it pays 90% of specialist's fees vs Pet Plan's 80%. I was very interested in Healthy Paws but they will not cover show or performance animals.


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

Benny and Me said:


> I had used Pet Plan in the past and was very pleased with it. I now use Trupanion simply because it pays 90% of specialist's fees vs Pet Plan's 80%. I was very interested in Healthy Paws but they will not cover show or performance animals.


Yes, I need to call them and ask what is a "performance" animal. I believe this is their definition:
For working pets, no coverage shall apply for any condition resulting from activities related to
racing, breeding, law enforcement, guarding or for any commercial use.

So even if it wasn't competitive, but for fun, they'd exclude the dog.


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

I emailed Healthy paws in regard to their "working dog" exclusion, to see if we would be excluded for doing agility or flyball. The short answer is well, there isn't really a short answer. WE won't be excluded, but somebody else could be. It depends at what level you compete. If you are dong it as a fun workout, and maybe competing locally for fun, but not for monetary rewards, then you are covered. It becomes a working dog once you compete nationally or internationally. Here is what they said:

"Hi Deanna, 

Thank you for your interest in Healthy Paws! We welcome the opportunity to protect you and your pet from the cost of unexpected medical care. Our working dog exclusion applies to professional level activities. We do not offer coverage for agility dogs who are competing for large sums of money (national shows or international shows like AKC or USDAA), law enforcement or military dogs, or racing dogs. We do, however, provide coverage for our pet parents and furry friends that practice agility for fun, or at lower levels. Many of our pet parents love to practice agility with their dogs (and cats!) for fun, and we're happy to provide coverage if any of these pets ever has an accident (though we hope not).

If you have questions, you can call us at 855-898-8991 or email us at [email protected]. We are available Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Warmest regards,

Lisa

Healthy Paws Customer Care
ref:_00DA0HEuf._500F0mab74:ref"


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## Benny and Me (Dec 21, 2015)

Wags said:


> Yes, I need to call them and ask what is a "performance" animal. I believe this is their definition:
> For working pets, no coverage shall apply for any condition resulting from activities related to
> racing, breeding, law enforcement, guarding or for any commercial use.
> 
> So even if it wasn't competitive, but for fun, they'd exclude the dog.


I called them twice. The first time the lady was nice but was unsure if they would cover a dog who trained in agility. She read the policy to me saying that racing, breeding, and law enforcement dogs were not covered but that service dogs were. I called back a few days later to see if they offered a rider that would specifically cover any injuries that occurred while training for dog sports. The lady curtly told me that Pet Plan did not cover any working dogs and offered no explanation of what they considered a working dog.


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## Wags (Dec 17, 2015)

Benny and Me said:


> I called them twice. The first time the lady was nice but was unsure if they would cover a dog who trained in agility. She read the policy to me saying that racing, breeding, and law enforcement dogs were not covered but that service dogs were. I called back a few days later to see if they offered a rider that would specifically cover any injuries that occurred while training for dog sports. The lady curtly told me that Pet Plan did not cover any working dogs and offered no explanation of what they considered a working dog.


I'm guessing you meant Healthy Paws? That's weird, whoever I talked to over e-mail seemed to have a very good understanding as far as agility went, that it was only considered working once it went to National or higher level, for fun/ local competitions would still be covered.


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## Benny and Me (Dec 21, 2015)

Wags said:


> I'm guessing you meant Healthy Paws? That's weird, whoever I talked to over e-mail seemed to have a very good understanding as far as agility went, that it was only considered working once it went to National or higher level, for fun/ local competitions would still be covered.


Oops, yes, I meant Healthy Paws. Sorry, I talked with so many companies specifically regarding coverage for intact dogs and dogs training/competing in agility. I was ready to go with them up until that point.


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## Birbeck (Oct 6, 2015)

It's not listed, but AKC Companion+
Accident and Illness. All shots/fecals/physicals are right at $100 so it's not exactly needed, and hopefully it'll never be used.


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