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Canadian Members Pet Insurance

Kodee

Well-known member
If any Canadians have pet insurance would you mind letting me know which company and what plan. Kody will be here in....8 days :lotsaluv: and we have decided to get some form of insurance. For the first few yrs I want to insure against breed specific disease - and might drop down a level if health appears good to a lesser one.

Pet insurance is new to me as we didnt have it for our lab and on hindsight she never needed any medical treatment that would have paid anything into her care. But due to some illnesses that can creep up on Cavs I want good protection for the early yrs and realize you need to sign up before any apparant heredity diseases pop up. Thanks in advance :flwr:
 
sara (kosmo) is in Canada and she has one called Vet Insurance, which sounds good to me. They cover hereditary illnesses. You can read the details at
http://www.vetinsurance.com/shop.html

Several people here have PetCare. It covers hereditary conditions too. i chose it because i can get 100% coverage, no copay. That works best for me, though the premiums are high. They have several choices of coverage and benefits at different prices.
http://www.petcareinsurance.com/can/index.asp
 
Thanks, that is great because I didnt know about Vetinsurance so I will follow your link!

Hopefully they are better than PetCare Canadian prices - now if I lived in the U. S. the price wasnt bad. Not fair!
 
For any other Canadian out there, the link given to me for VetInsurance is great for cavalier owners here. The price is 29.80 a mth a lot cheaper with a 15,000 lifetime limit with no limit on any illness or accident. Cav related illnesses are covered off too. Boy that was my first easy decision outside of "yes lets get another dog!" Thanks again for the link as I hadnt heard of them and you just saved me $15 a mth - $180 yr - $500 in 5 yrs and if I keep it past that (I might reduce to a senior plan then) $1800 for 10 yr life! If you charged commission for your advice, think of the money you could have made! :flwr:
 
LOL Glad you like the vetinsurance Kody - I snatched that one up too! I found it while searching the internet .. I did a lot of research before I made my decision and it came down to that being the best deal. If there's an accident you pay the $50 exam fee or whatever and then they pay 100% of the bill after that.. that's a relief huh?
 
arasara said:
LOL Glad you like the vetinsurance Kody - I snatched that one up too! I found it while searching the internet .. I did a lot of research before I made my decision and it came down to that being the best deal. If there's an accident you pay the $50 exam fee or whatever and then they pay 100% of the bill after that.. that's a relief huh?

Yes I did notice the vet office visit fee at $60 I pay first - but I love the unlimited per illness/accident part so much with the $15,000 lifetime. Going into this breed "eyes open" knowing of potential health risk for me there is no question I want it. I dont have the extra cash lying about should heart, nervous system or knees give out. No matter how much I wanted to I'd be looking at having to loose a pet if seriousl medical costs happened more than once.

On another post for U.S. insurance questions a few members talked about putting the fee aside and using if necessary. I love that idea for those that can cover an illness if it creeps up earlier than what you have saved. For me that would be a risk because anything over what I had saved for pet health care couldnt be covered in an emergency. My lab didnt have insurance but then again if I had it, we would have used $0 of it - the picture of health for 15 straight yrs. My brothers lab this wk at 8 got diagnosed with cancer and his insurance paid for the tumor removal and testing to see grade - $1500 cost. On hindsight perhaps I was stupid with our lab as obviously luck was on my side with no health problems. But I'm not risking it with a this breed - the stats would not be in my favour.

ONE WEEK FOR BOTH OF OUR BABIES TO BE HOME :rah: I KNOW YOUR AS EXCITED AS ME!
 
i really like those features of vetinsurance too. Good find sara, you always do good research on everything.

They promise that they will be available in the US in the near future and I'm on a waiting list for updates when it will be available. If i later sign up for it, you can tell them I referred you and maybe they'll give me a discount. Some companies do that. And i will tell them Sara referred me. For that matter, you can tell them Sara referred you since she already has them. They might give her bonus. I'm going to get a discount on my next verizon bill because my daughter signed up and told them i referred her. i think insurance companies sometimes do that.
 
judy said:
i really like those features of vetinsurance too. Good find sara, you always do good research on everything.

They promise that they will be available in the US in the near future and I'm on a waiting list for updates when it will be available. If i later sign up for it, you can tell them I referred you and maybe they'll give me a discount. Some companies do that. And i will tell them Sara referred me. For that matter, you can tell them Sara referred you since she already has them. They might give her bonus. I'm going to get a discount on my next verizon bill because my daughter signed up and told them i referred her. i think insurance companies sometimes do that.

That's a fine idea and I dont mind at all - Sara if vetinsurance does give you a discount for referral you should pm me your full name etc so I can do that for you.
 
Please be advised that they don't cover anything to do with hip displaysia but as far as I can see that doesn't seem to be a very common condition in the breed. I have heard of it happening, but I don't think it's as likely as, lets say, a luxating patallae.

Thanks for the references although I am not sure they take them?? I don't know. I am looking into adding little faithey now - not sure if I can change her name should we choose to do so after though.. icon_whistling

I thought this was the best plan because they had no limitations per illness as you pointed out Kody - and although they don't cover hip displaysia I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If I had something like - let's say a GSD I would probably go for petcare.

Hope this helps! :flwr:
 
I am mostly concerned with SM (more drastic cases) and MVD. Without those two high risks and if I was getting a lab again, I'd go with PetCare -my sister has the $20 plan for basic coverage. Does Vet Insurance cover an MRI's if a vet feels its needed to diagnose either of those?

If you talk to them before me, still check if they do referrals as I'd be happy to. Also you might qualify for a second pet discount - some sites I saw did.
 
That's great that you are doing your research on insurance. I too did a lot of research and asked around before getting Coco insured. (It's been a while since I read about all this stuff, so I have to think back!)

I have Pet Plan- it's the Champion plan. It covers a lot and I don't regret getting it for Coco.

It's different from the Pet Care Canadian because it covers some preventative stuff (like dental care) so I thought why not?
There is also unlimited coverage on illnesses, unlike Pet Care Canadian, which is another reason why I opted for Pet Plan. Unlike Vet Insurance, there is no lifetime limit either.

It covers things such as some dental cleaning, annual exam, heartworm, flea, blood tests, urinanalyius, deworming, vaccinations, declaw removal, spaying/neutering, unlimited veterinary coverage, extended dental care, death from illness, death from accidents, etc.
There is a 20% copay with this plan.

It has 100% accident coverage and hip dysplasia and all other hereditary diseases associated with cavaliers are covered. Some may say it's a bit pricey, but I think it's worth it. Here's a link: http://www.petplan.com/dog/cover_for_life/index.aspx

Good luck! :flwr:
 
I have a call into them now Debbie, as I have a few questions for them.

They don't cover pre-existing conditions, so in my case Dudley had Gastro last year I want to know if he ever gets it again does that mean it is not covered.
 
Coco's mom -

Is it too personal to ask you how much you pay for coco's insurance per month? ?

I am currently paying about $33 after taxes for Kosmo and I'm getting another in a week and a half so I'm going to be at this insurance thing again..
 
Coco's mom said:
I have Pet Plan- it's the Champion plan.

I was at that site last night actually but thanks for the info, I want to check all this now. Cause you know NEXT SATURDAY i will be busy for a few wks just cuddling - well except when my daughter demands puppy cuddle time.

Perhaps I am blind (god knows I deserve it for being on the internet all day - oh lazy me!) but I cant find pricing at their website - is it there?
 
Linda said:
I have a call into them now Debbie, as I have a few questions for them.

They don't cover pre-existing conditions, so in my case Dudley had Gastro last year I want to know if he ever gets it again does that mean it is not covered.

If you dont mind Linda, could you PM me with any info you hear about. As for Gastro it really isnt a hereditary disease so I think you safe with that - but obviously check with them as companies can have such silly rules.
 
Kody said:
Linda said:
I have a call into them now Debbie, as I have a few questions for them.

They don't cover pre-existing conditions, so in my case Dudley had Gastro last year I want to know if he ever gets it again does that mean it is not covered.

If you dont mind Linda, could you PM me with any info you hear about. As for Gastro it really isnt a hereditary disease so I think you safe with that - but obviously check with them as companies can have such silly rules.

I called my Vet and they said they will request a complete medical history on both boys. I asked how the heck can they deny you Gastro a dog will obviously get that more than once in their life. When I called the Insurance they said something about not covering anything that the dog has had previously.

They haven't called back yet, if you go online and fill out the application a little it will give you a price.

Mine is $66.60 a month.
I may look around.
 
Is it too personal to ask you how much you pay for coco's insurance per month? ?
Sara, we pay about $99 a month. This is for the Champion plan.
Im so excited about your new little puppy. You are so lucky to have a little boy and now a girl!!!! :D


I was at that site last night actually but thanks for the info, I want to check all this now. Cause you know NEXT SATURDAY i will be busy for a few wks just cuddling - well except when my daughter demands puppy cuddle time.

Perhaps I am blind (god knows I deserve it for being on the internet all day - oh lazy me!) but I cant find pricing at their website - is it there?
Kody- You have to ask for a quote. I remember I was not that impressed with Pet Plan until I called and asked for details about what they cover, etc.
 
Linda said:
....They don't cover pre-existing conditions, so in my case Dudley had Gastro last year I want to know if he ever gets it again does that mean it is not covered...

I called my Vet and they said they will request a complete medical history on both boys. I asked how the heck can they deny you Gastro a dog will obviously get that more than once in their life. When I called the Insurance they said something about not covering anything that the dog has had previously.....

Petcare has temporary exclusions and permanent exclusions. when i first got zack and signed up for Petcare, zack had bloody diarrhea during the 30 day waiting period. He also had a small growth on his face. The vet noted these when i took him for his initial exam. She would not have noticed the skin growth but i asked her about it, so then it was in his chart. it was tiny and soon went away.

Three weeks after i got zack, still during the 30 day waiting period where there is no coverage, i took him to the ER for vomiting where the vet took an abdominal xray and mistakenly wrote in his chart that he had an enlarged heart. He said that there was a foreign body showing in the stomach on the xray so i made a claim on the insurance because accidents are covered during the first 30 days. I sent the records from the hospital. i forgot all about the enlarged heart notation becaue the next day the doctor had called and said there was nothing wrong with the heart--after the radiologist had looked at the xrays and said the heart looked normal.

I got a revised copy of my policy under the heading Excluded From Coverage, it said "Bloody Diarrhea as of January 30, 2006 and Associated Conditions--Temporary," and "Growth under Right Eye and Associated Conditions--Temporary." and it said "Enlarged Heart and Associated Conditions--Permanent."

There was a cover letter that says "Please note that any temporary exclusions placed on your policy are eligible for review, upon your request, after a period of one year from your effective date of coverage."

The word 'temporary' was in bold type. Not to be confused with "permanent' exclusions.

So, as of January 30 it will be a year since i took him to the vet for a complete exam, and diarrhea and skin growth were noted in his chart. I will be contacting Petcare and asking them to remove the two temporary exclusions after January 30. I guess i just take him for a yearly exam and send them the records that he's normal. I'll let you know.

I had a hard time at first getting them to understand the 'enlarged heart' was a mistake. At first when i got them a letter from the radiologist, which was ambiguous, they changed the permanent exclusion into a temporary one. I wrote a letter to their underwriting supervisor or administrator, expressing frustration that Petcare was not seeing that the diagnosis had been an error, and after that they interviewed the radiologist and removed the exclusion completely.
 
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