The Difference between Pet Insurance and Discount Veterinary Plans
Make Sure You’re Getting What You Pay for When Buying Pet Insurance
Many pet owners are beginning to recognize the benefits that pet insurance can offer them. The unfortunate thing is that many unscrupulous companies are claiming to offer pet insurance when what they are really offering is nothing more than a discount veterinary plan. Before you go shopping for pet insurance, you need to understand what constitutes as pet insurance and what does not.
Services Reimbursed vs. Discount Percentage
The biggest difference between actual pet insurance and a veterinary discount plan is how the two programs work. With pet insurance, you select a plan and depending on which plan you select, you will have a deductible and a certain percentage of veterinary expenses that you are responsible for.
For example, let’s say your pet incurred a severe injury that cost $2,000 to treat. If you had a pet insurance policy with a deductible of $250 and coverage rate of 80/20 (the pet insurance covers 80 percent and you cover 20 percent), the total amount you were responsible for would be $600. Your pet insurance would cover the remaining $1,400.
However, if you had a veterinary discount policy, you would need to take your pet to a participating vet and you’d receive about 25 percent off your pet’s veterinary costs. In this instance, your total financial responsibility would be about $1,500. That’s more than twice as much as you would have to spend had you had a real pet insurance policy.
Cost Differences
If I were to tell you that pet insurance doesn’t cost much more than a veterinary discount plan, would you wonder why anyone would opt for a discount plan to begin with? The fact is, most pet insurance policies cost about the same as the average veterinary discount plan, but pet insurance covers a whole lot more.
If you are looking for a pet insurance policy, make sure the company you’re enrolling with is actually offering a pet insurance policy and not a veterinary discount plan.