The advances in veterinary medicine in recent years have been nothing short of amazing. Medical procedures that have only recently become available for people are now routinely performed on cats and dogs. Illnesses and injuries that not long ago would have been untreatable, and would have left no option but euthanasia for the pet, are now treated and cured. Tests can detect problems before they become severe and while they can be more easily treated. Vaccines protect against diseases that used to kill dogs (parvo, distemper) and cats (feline leukemia, feline AIDS). Heartworm is preventable, and even that old nemesis, the flea, has been eliminated as a problem.
In the area of diagnostics, ultrasound makes it possible to look inside the pet’s body and view the organs at work, allowing the vet to detect a problem or confirm a diagnosis without major surgery. CT scans, MRI, and other diagnostic procedures used on humans are now also available for pets.
Kidney failure was a death sentence for a pet until recently, but kidney transplants are now a medical alternative. Hip problems can result in a life of pain and immobility for dogs that are afflicted, and often lead to the dog being put to sleep to end its suffering. Now hip replacement surgery can put the old spring back in a dog’s legs, just as it can with people. Pacemakers can be implanted to keep weakening hearts beating properly. Chemotherapy and radiation have made for successful treatment of cancers in dogs and cats.
That is the good news. The bad news is that all these advances come with a price, and it can be pretty steep. Americans spent over $18 billion on veterinary care in 2001, triple what was spent just a decade earlier. Today, when a pet is sick or injured, owners are faced with a decision, and for many a dilemma; the pet can be saved and restored to good health, but the cost will be high.
For some, the decision is easy and automatic; they will do whatever it takes and spend whatever it costs to save the pet. The relationship is that close, the bond that strong. For others, the decision is just as easy; it is too much to spend, they can get another pet. In between are the ones with the real heart-wrenching decision; they would do anything to save the pet if they could, but their finances just won’t allow it, and they have to let the pet die knowing it could have been saved.
As new advances in health care, for people and animals, bring with them higher costs, these decisions will become more common. Most people have health insurance to cover part of the cost, so the price of medical care doesn’t seem so high for them. More than one pet owner has probably wondered why a procedure for an animal costs so much when his bypass surgery cost him less than $1000?
Health insurance is available for pets, and a number of companies offer it, but is it a good deal for pet owners? As with health insurance for people, premiums are paid monthly and the insurer pays a portion of the vet bill for covered procedures.
We did a quick check of the two biggest pet health insurance companies, Veterinary Pet Insurance and Premier Pet Insurance, to compare their coverage and rates. This was all done on the internet; we never actually spoke with anyone, so a lot of questions went unanswered. We found differences in the way each provides coverage as well as in the way they base their rates.
Charlie is a four-year old mid-sized, mixed breed dog with no health problems, so we used him as a test dog. We started with Premier Pet Insurance. PPI offers coverage similar to the kind most of us are familiar with. Their plans have an 80/20 payment policy, with a $100.00 annual deductible. Their policies cover illness and injury treatment, and all include spay and neuter surgery. They offer three levels of coverage – Basic, Value and Choice, and each has a limit on the amount the policy will pay per incident and the total amount that it will pay per year. This ranges from $1500 per incident and $8000 annually on the Basic plan to $5000 per incident and $13000 annually with the Choice plan. The Basic plan does not cover routine care, but Value and Choice plans do.
When it came to rates, PPI did not ask Charlie’s age, just his breed, and mixed breed was among the selections on the drop-down box. A quick check showed that his rate was the same as purebred dogs in his weight range. It ranged from $15.27 a month for the Basic plan, $30.56 for Value, to $51.61 for the Choice coverage. It seems odd that they would charge the same to insure a one year old dog as for one that is ten years old.
Veterinary Pet Insurance policies pay a fixed amount for each procedure, no matter what the vet charges. They have two levels of coverage – Standard and Superior. Standard has a $9000 maximum annual benefit, while Superior has a $14,000 annual maximum. Both have a $50 deductible per incident, and Superior pays a higher dollar amount per incident. Both plans offer an optional Vaccination and Routine Care coverage for $8.25 a month.
VPI wanted to know Charlie’s age and didn’t care what breed he was. His rate for Superior coverage is $18.91 versus $10.16 for the Standard plan, a more than 40% savings. The rates will rise as he gets older; as a five and six year old the rate will be $24.50 for Superior, when he is nine it will be $31.08, and at ten it will be $39.16. They do not post premiums for older dogs, probably because they don’t offer new insurance to dogs above that age, while continuing to insure pets that already have coverage.
We began this article last August, but it was left out of the last issue. When we checked our figures in October, the VPI premiums had increased, only pennies at the younger ages, but at age ten the rate went from $35.16 to $39.16, well over 10%. When we tried to check the rates at Premier Pet Insurance, that section of the web site would not open, suggesting that they may be working on it. Pet health insurance is a fairly new industry, and the actuarial figures they are using are probably pretty sketchy. Plus there has been a big increase in the number of insured pets in the last few years. If these companies find that their cost estimates were too low, rates will be rising to correct the problem. That does seem to be the trend in health insurance.
Consumer Reports recently did an in-depth report on pet health insurance and came up with some interesting results. To find out just how well this insurance works they created an imaginary dog named Lucky, and over 11 imaginary years gave him a variety of illnesses and injuries, including a broken leg, an ear infection, a cut and a torn knee ligament. They researched five different plans, and in every case, it would be cheaper to skip the insurance and just pay the vet. When they added the premiums, deductibles, co-payments, non-reimbursed costs, and excluded procedures, the cost was higher with insurance than without it.
This doesn’t mean that insurance is not a good product, and that no one should buy it, but it is something that will cost in the thousands over the life of a pet, and the cost versus benefits should be considered before a decision is made.
So, what to do? Consumer Reports suggests putting money in a savings account designated for pet medical emergencies, and adding to it every month. With luck, you will not need it, but if you do, it will be there.
