Opinions of Petcareinsurance.com

After reading how many people have benefitted from pet insurance, I am seriously considering purchasing it. I have seen petcareinsurance.com mentioned a few times and I was wondering what plans those who use it are on, the Gold or Preferred.

With everything I read, i'm wondering if the 6,000 coverage would be smarter than the 3,000 coverage considering the severity of illnesses like SM and MVD.

The customer service representative I talked to over the phone said that I would have 30 days to send a copy of Molly's medical records to them. Unfortunately Molly was diagnosed a couple of months back with grade 1 luxating patellas in both knees so i'm sure that would be excluded.

Any opinions on this or other pet coverage in the US would be greatly appreciated. :thnx:

Molly's mom said:

...With everything I read, i'm wondering if the 6,000 coverage would be smarter than the 3,000 coverage considering the severity of illnesses like SM and MVD

Click to expand...

That was my thinking. I have the Gold double coverage, and also the 100%, no copayment, with $50 deductible per incident. That no co-payment thing has come in handy as I've made a few claims in the past year that i've had the policy adding up quite a bit, he poked his eye on a bush while plaing fetch, and he had a mysterious illness with pyoderma that lasted a while. They paid for flea treatment too. What they've paid in claims probably more than covered the premiums i've paid and i've come out ahead so far. I've paid probably less than $400 in premiums this year, and they've paid something like $500 to $700 in claims i think.

I was worried that they would just pay "reasonable and customary" and would go by some formula for how much to pay for each kind of incident, because my main vet is more expensive than most, but they paid their claims fully along with the other vets' bills that i had.

They paid claims rapidly, and as long as the vet wrote it up correctly, just straightforward, they paid everything that was claimed. The checks have been dated on the date i faxed the claim form, but it takes another week and a half for it to come in the mail.

I had a hard time with them in the beginning when due to a mistake by a vet, they decided he had an enlarged heart and excluded everything to do with the heart PERMANENTLY!!
:yikes

I had to fight it and they didnt' change their minds very quickly, but eventually they did remove the exclusion, once they saw reality.

That is really sad that Molly lluxating patellas were diagnosed before.

I looked into several plans and for me, this was the best one, but others sounded good too. I just wanted the 100% option which the others didn't have.

I bought the Petcare insurance Gold Plan, too. I debated because it was about $480 a year (if I remember correctly). It was about the only insurance company I could find that didn't exclude hereditary/genetic conditions. Obviously the major things I worry about are SM and MVD, so if it didn't cover those, I didn't really think it was worth much.

I signed her up about 2 days after I got her because I was so nervous that something big would be excluded, so I feel for you on the patellas! (Daisy had already had her puppy checkup at the breeder's, and I had already taken her for her initial checkup at my vet the day after I brought her home -- luckily everything looked good.)

I haven't submitted a claim yet (and hopefully won't have to), so I can't comment on that, but it sounds like really good service from Judy's experience above, so that makes me optimistic.

I talked to Molly's vet today (who happens to be the wife of a coworker). She thinks pet insurance is a great idea. She said the largest she knows of is VPI. She hadn't heard of petcare. However she did mention that as far as MVD, the $6,000 per illness would be more inline than the $3,000. As far as the patella's she said she didn't think it was documented in her chart

Any thoughts on VPI?

They mostly do not cover pre-existing conditions but I wouldn't worry yet about grade one patellas. How old is Molly? Most people would not consider surgery unles it was closer to a grade 3 or above.

Joanna

Molly is 17months old. It certainly sounds like Petcare is the way to go as I did a search and see the VPI doesn't cover anything considered hereditary. Now the decision will be which coverage to get. I was quoted quick care gold 70% for $22.95, gold 100% 38.95, double gold 70%, $40.90, double gold 100% $56.90. Preferred plan is 70% for $34.90.

Oh my gosh which plan to chose?

Thanks for the replies cl*p

I've had great luck with PetCare Insurance. I've had it for a couple of years on my Golden. They pay quickly and it's been worth every penny. They've paid significantly more in claims than I've paid in premiums... unfortunately, Wrigley can be an accident waiting to happen. :lol:

way back in the 90s i got VPI for my cat, after her UTI. That was the only time she was ever sick and has never been sick since. I paid my premium every month but i never used it. Then my friend at work told me she was using petcare a few years later and the premium was a lot lower than VPI. Of course, i thought it was too good to be true, you can't get something for nothing. VPI was thirty some dollars a month. Pet care was under $20 and they claimed to provide this thorough coverage. So, with some worry about whether they would really pay what they advertized, i changed and have had it on the cat ever since, and have never made a claim.. I just upgraded Fluffy's insurance because she's old now. For that insurance to take effect i need to take her for a check up and am in trepidation about that, i hope they don't find a lot of things. She seems healthy except some arthritis.

Anyway, when i got Zack, my biggest concern was hereditary conditions. I called VPI first and they said no. I called Petcare and they said yes. I asked specifically about Cavalier things and they said it as covered. I also checked into the AKC plan, Pet Partners. It had something like a$7000 maximum, bigger than PetCare's $6000. But i dont' think it covered hereditary. I don't remember. But they only offered plans with 20% or more copayments. Sara found an interesting plan which was only available in Canada but will eventually be available in the US, i got on an email notification list. Here's a link. they have a chart where they compare themselves to Petcare. some of the info about Petcare is outdated and incorrect. but they give information about their plan.

About hereditary conditions, Sara called them because it wasn't clear at first. I think they said they do cover them but not sure about the details.

http://www.vetinsurance.com/info.html#

click on Quotes and then click on Shop and Compare.

That is very good news that the vet doesn't have anything in her charts diagnosing anything that could be excluded, like the patellas.

about choosing different Petcare plans, at least if you choose one, you can change to another one later, with a 30 day waiting period. At first, i got Zack the regular Gold, and then, from Day One he was sick with bloody diarrhea, then vomiting, no diagnosis, emergency room visit, a quick thousand dollars in vet bills added up in 4 weeks, and i changed to the double coverage. (all of that happened in the first 30 days before the coverage began).

I emailed Vetinsurance, and they replied that they are still in the process of aquiring licensing in the USA and policies should be available in the US in early 2007.