# Recommended health insurance



## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

Looking for something that covers alternative treatments such as holistic vets. My current insurance for the one known issue has reached it's limit. Yea... stupid. But oh well. Dog doesn't have any other known issues so that shouldn't be a problem. I hated dealing with my current insurance company because they kept losing claim forums and telling me I didn't send them. I don't find out that they don't have everything until I call them a month later and they say oh, you didn't send us this. I did too! It was all together. Or your vet didn't reply to our fax. My vet would tell me they never got the fax. I would have believed the insurance company if they didn't also add that they sent me letters which I never got and if this didn't happen so often. Currently paying 48 a month so I'm thinking most are going to be around that price range.


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## Khan (Jan 17, 2010)

Who is the current provider??
I looked into insurance when we brought Khan home. Our Rottie Zeus had 2 TPLO within 2 years, so after 2 $6,000+ surgeries, not to mention the rehab, I was thinking the insurance wouldn't be bad thing! 
I signed Khan up with Trupanion and it was about $48 per month with a $200 deductible. The other advantage was as the dog got older, the rate didn't change. 
Well all that changed a couple months ago, when the policy renewed! They sent me a letter saying that since dogs were living longer and rising costs...you know the usual need to raise your rate so here are some lame excuses! If I wanted the deductible to remain around the $200 mark, the monthly was going up to over $100+. If I wanted the monthly to stay around the $50 mark, the deductible was going to be over $1,000!! The silly thing is, besides the visits in the beginning for his allergies, Khan rarely goes to the vet since he's been eating raw!. I decided to cancel my policy and take the $50.00 and put it into a savings account for vet emergencies!!


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

AKC Petpartners is the name of my current insurance provider. Do not recommend them to anyone. I swear they have lost more insurance claims (that were faxed to them) than a 7th grade classroom. And don't expect to ever get any notice of the fact that claims are being lost. Twice now they have sent me the amount owed they had non pay codes for duplicate codes and yet still claim I never sent them the first one? I didn't even bother to ask them how they happened to have gotten two copies of the same claim if they truly never got the first one at all. 

I had their free trial with them that had a low max payout. It made sense because it was free. I decided to use my entire free trial before signing up for the real thing. My dog had a bathroom related issue and I didn't want to get it under pre existing conditions by switching companies. Well, they did that to me anyway. Told me I had reached the max payment amount under my old claim and any new claim would have to be used for different issues despite the fact that it wasn't a preexisting condition. Needless to say I am currently in search of a different insurance company. I don't see any point at all in staying with them. My new claim current max pay is 5,000 dollars for any issue within that claim and the year after that I will get another 5,000 max for any new issues that happen that year...


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## Khan (Jan 17, 2010)

I don't remember; but I think Trupanion states they have a $20K max per incident. I think it may even be more if it's an "emergency". The little I did use them, I will say they were very fast at responding to my claims. Just too bad that none of them went any farther than my deductible!!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Most pet insurance companies are not worth the hassle. VPI is probably the biggest company...might want to check them out but I was less than enthused with them when I had a policy. Started the policy when Emmy was 6 weeks old. At a year she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. They refused to cover the surgery since it was hereditary even though I was paying for "full coverage" on everything. I guess they were still picking and choosing what was "everything" covered by them :frown:


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## Janet At Nutro (Mar 11, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> Most pet insurance companies are not worth the hassle. VPI is probably the biggest company...might want to check them out but I was less than enthused with them when I had a policy. Started the policy when Emmy was 6 weeks old. At a year she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. They refused to cover the surgery since it was hereditary even though I was paying for "full coverage" on everything. I guess they were still picking and choosing what was "everything" covered by them :frown:


I had a similiar experience with them when Tank was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and wobblers.
Other than that they were great.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

I have a 3 year warrant for that issue. My dog was brought from a pet store( I know... bad). But that is the truth and I'm happy to have her. I know a few companies I'm looking into who do cover hereditary issues and alternative treatments. The payments aren't much for these but anything is better than nothing at all.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I think since I dropped insurance, there are plans for hereditary issues like HD. But they're pretty pricey from what I hear. I would still opt to just have a "ER savings fund" or something that you deposit money into every month rather than paying fees and bills with an insurance company. 

I think there have only been like 3 cases in my 4+ years of being a vet tech that the insurance was actually a blessing. All three were cancer cases going through chemotherapy.


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