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Petplan US - Ridiculous premium increase

dandelos

Well-known member
Wow, I just got my renewal notice from PetPlan USA, and they are saying my 2013 premium is going up by a WHOPPING 27% this year. Annual premium increments I can understand, especially in the face of inflation, but since I joined PetPlan in 2011 the 2 increments since then would mean they've increased my premium 51% in just 2 years.

The only claim we've made so far was for a $700 reimbursement in late 2011 for a abscess removal procedure we had to do on Skippy.

Premiums over the years
2013: $527 (have not paid/renewed yet)
2012: $413
2011: $350 (estimated, from what I can remember)

This is the 'plan' we currently have:
"Bronze" coverage
  • $8000 vet fees
  • $200 deductible
  • 100% reimbursement

I'm about to email PetPlan to get an explanation, but just wanted to post here and see if this is the norm for you guys too, or if they are way out of line.
 
Well, insurance is insurance and the companies can basically do whatever they want (in the US anyway). :mad: It makes me angry as well. It least with Pet Plan the insurance works like it should I mean when you sign up "they say" it covers XYZ and it actually does.

Not like most human insurance health insurance companies where you pay your deductible you pay your co-pay then STILL end up with a bill WHAT????!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

I have not renewed yet , due to in April but I paid $375 ( ish-or what I remember) for April 2012-April 2013 I do remember getting a pay in full discount tho.
I don't think your out of like, but maybe you can play with the numbers a bit....can you raise the deductible? change the reimbursement? It never hurts to ask a company "hey can you do better than this?"

Please let us know how it goes.
 
Seems strange, I have Petplan for Cooper with
  • $8000 vet fees
  • $200 deductible
  • 80% reimbursement
  • I paid $324.54 renewal in January
 
Mine went up too. I decided to stay with them though since Lucky has now been diagnosed with MVD.

Plus, they do pay more than half their dentals for me (I have a similar plan to Chuck).

I might look into changing to a lesser plan but for now I've just bit the bullet and let it renew...
 
I don't have the numbers handy, but the premium for Sophie's "Silver" policy with Pet Plan had a similar sharp increase in September 2012, also. It was noticeable.

We get that lovely quarterly magazine printed on heavy stock paper with nice color photos, with articles that describe some of the most expensive claims they have paid out on dogs. Insurance is a form of socialized medicine in that *we* are paying for those claims. That's how it worked with the group health insurance plan where my husband worked. Husband and I didn't have outrageous health insurance claims, but there were some very, very ill people where he worked, each with claims in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, for a year or two. As a result, the premiums for all employees jumped 35% for the past few years and we went from a $5k to $8k deductible to keep those horrendous premiums as low (ha!) as they were. I imagine it is the same with pet insurance.

Edited to add ---

Found the info on premiums (numbers are rounded to nearest dollar):
Sept 2009 $280 USD
Sept 2010 $294 USD
Sept 2011 $294 USD
Sept 2012 $383 USD --- a $90 increase over 2011 price; a 31% increase
 
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We haven't got any for Jenny yet, but some folks here have said that we should. We have been thinking about it seriously, too. We had best get started on our research. I'm wondering if the pet insurance companies are like the satellite companies. They just continue to raise the monthly payment and there's no inflation at all now. The health insurance companies do the same. They treat us like a bunch of lemmings and we continue to make that easy for them to do. Just sayin....
 
we are with trupanion..and have just entered our first two claims.
awaiting the results..seems to be taking a while to review.

we have a zero deductable..and a 90% coverage
my friend used them with his boston terrier..and has claimed and been reembersed over $10,000.
 
Just got off the phone with PetPlan. I inquired about reducing Skippy's coverage from 100% reimbursement to either 90% or 80% (keeping Bronze and the deductible the same):

90% = $430-something
80% = $380-something

We're going with the 80% option this year. Fingers crossed we won't need to use it, of course.
 
I have PurinaCare for Luke. His renews in April, and I just got the notice. It' s going up about a dollar a month, from $33 something to $34 something. I have preventative care with $1000 deductible and 80% reimbursement. He has been covered through them the entire time I have had him. I started his policy before I brought him home so that he would be covered immediately when I got him home. I've heard people tell of high increases through Petplan in other places too.
 
One year later, I just received our renewal letter for Skippy informing us that his premium for the next year will be $498.45, or about 29% more than last year. I understand increases have to happen with inflation and dog age, but 25-29% a year just seems excessive.
 
Yes, one year later Now I have had to drop the Pet Plan insurance on Cooper.It increase to the point that I can no longer afford it. will miss the magazine.
 
Here was their emailed response after I sent them a note expressing my disappointment at the premium increase --

Thank you for contacting us.
On a yearly basis we do look at a couple of factors that will change the premium on a year to year basis.
Age: As a pet ages there will be an increase, just like humans as a pet gets older the opportunity for injury and illness does rise.
Location/veterinary spending: We do take your location as well as what vets are charging pet parent to treat and diagnose injuries and illnesses into consideration. This will change on a year to year basis as veterinary spending does go up and down from year to year.
Breed: The breed of the pet has a major part in the baseline of the premium. As some breeds life span may only be 6-8 others may be 13-15. Depending on the average cost of the pet your premium may fluctuate a bit.
If there are any other questions you have about your policy please feel free to let me know.
 
Well. according to that I messed up! I thought that by buying it when he was a pup would save me money as he got older. Should just buy it when they get about 6-8 years old, as it looks like that would be the same rate for a new policy.
 
This year, PetPlan's premium has increased 25% for my 11 year old, Charlie McFarlie. We have been with PetPlan for over 6 years and have not made a claim until just recently. We have been waiting over 18 business days (26 total days) for the claim to be processed and are hopeful that PetPlan will come through. (Although their initial email to us mentioned that they settle claims within 10 to 15 business days, after all requested paperwork has been submitted to them. All of our paperwork was received by them when they sent this email to us.) Our total vet bill was approximately $1300, so with the 20% deductible (for a specialist) and $200 co pay, we are not talking about a huge re-imbursement here..
At any rate, Charlie's yearly premium went from $869.17 last year to $1086.6, this year.
 
I think insurance premiums generally are going up a lot. My Oliver's jumped from £40 a month to £60, and most of his serious problems (CM/SM and arthritis) aren't covered anyway as they were diagnosed before I moved to our present insurers 5 years ago. They have been very good about paying promptly, and fortunately Aled is covered for all his problems, but I've decided that I won't renew for Oliver but put £40 a month into the bank for him. He's nearly 13, and with his other ailments, if he got something like cancer I don't think I would put him through invasive treatment anyway (though I may feel differently if it actually happened!). Part of the problem is that many dogs are staying alive longer (vets can now treat conditions where before the dog would simply have been put to sleep), and hitech procedures such as MRI scans are much more common and are very expensive. So we have to pay for it.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
I think insurance premiums generally are going up a lot. . . . . .

Part of the problem is that many dogs are staying alive longer (vets can now treat conditions where before the dog would simply have been put to sleep), and hi-tech procedures such as MRI scans are much more common and are very expensive. So we have to pay for it.

You are spot on, Kate H. It's the same with humans and our own health insurance premiums here in the U.S. (no national/universal health care). The cost of our health insurance premiums increased by 30 - 35% every year while the deductible kept rising and coverage benefits became less and less. The same will happen with pet insurance. The money has to come from somewhere to pay out all those exorbitant claims they profile in the nice, expensive-to-print magazine that PetPlan sends us.
 
Just got our latest renewal letter (see the 2015 line below). Here is an updated history of the annual premiums for Skippy's (currently 5.75 years old) Petplan policy since year 1 --

2015: $681 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 80% reimbursement) = 36% increase
2014:
$499 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 80% reimbursement) = 29% increase
2013: $527 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 100% reimbursement) but reduced to $386 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 80% reimbursement) = 28% increase
2012: $413 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 100% reimbursement) = 25% increase
2011: $330 ($8k vet fees, $200 ded., 100% reimbursement) = first year of policy
 
Lucky's is crazy expensive - I think it is over $100 a month now! But I've paid out over $3000 in this past month on an Ophthalmologist, neurologist, MRI, etc. It is funny, a week ago I found myself looking at the debit and thinking maybe I should cancel it. I am hoping they will pay out. They should but I won't rest totally easy until I get the checks in the mail. ;-)

Next week we have to see a dermatologist and hopefully soon we will get a myringotomy (ALL of these things are related to his PSOM and how we came to diagnose and unravel the mystery of his sudden and severe dry eye).
 
I just got Luke's renewal letter for this year from vpi. His rate is about the same, $36.75 per month. I'm not sure what it was last year, but that's not more than a 10% increase. His is major medical.
ETA-current premium is $33.27
 
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