Dog insurance or not?

[Lbueno]

The title is basically it.. Is dog insurance worth it? I don't have a dog yet (couple weeks). After reading through different forums and such, though, it doesn't really seem like it is.

[Spectral]

No. Dogs are cheaply replaceable goods.

[Tziva]

That's sort of your own personal judgement. Like all insurance, if you never have a claim, it feels like a waste of money but if you do, it's a lifesaver. And of course you can't predict the future.

Personally, I would probably buy it if I had a particular pet breed / something costly. Of course, I'm not really the type to buy some sort of fancy dog with papers, but in theory. I'd be a lot more likely to buy it if my dog costs thousands of dollars, you know?

[Forgettable]

Nope, not worth it.

[Deleted]

Depends how much of an animal lover you are, my dogs are worth the pittance my insurance costs me.

[Themius]

Most pet insurance in the states is just horrible. Even the best ones have a laundry list of complaints.

[Morgaith]

Totally worth it, they are worth it much more than humanity is.

[gismo7354]

I would probably buy it if I had a particular pet breed / something costly.

This. If you have a very expensive breed, registered, good blood lines, award winning, etc. then I could understand. If you just have a run of the mill labrador as a house pet then I wouldn't see the need.

Now are you talking about one of those all in one veterinary pet plans? If so those can be worth the money. My buddies wife has one of those for her two dogs. I know she has gotten her money back out of that plan. This past year alone I've helped her take her dogs to the vet for an emergency 3 times and it cost nothing extra out of her pocket.

[Spectral]

Totally worth it, they are worth it much more than humanity is.

They might be worth more than bitter misanthropes, I suppose.

[Jeleh]

Quite simply it depends on your circumstances. If you manage your finances well and can afford the monthly cost then yes get it, if you can't then be aware you are simply taking a risk that if your pet gets injured you either have a large bill or say goodbye prematurely.

Personally I manage my money so I would just suck up the extra small monthly cost to save me the chance that a huge bill could come in.

[Waarheid]

A dog being papered doesn't matter. What matters is how much you can save out of your income to pay for the potentally expensive visit. Our lab (a therapy dog) was diagnosed with bone cancer. Fortunately we had enough saved up to cover the cost of the amputation, and followup medications. If we hadn't had the savings we would have had to rely on insurance, or had to put the animal down. The real question is one that only you can answer; will you be able to part with a companion animal over an issue that could be dealt with sucessfully if not for the lack of money to cover the costs of treatment? If you do chose to buy insurance be very carful researching who you buy from. Pet insurance isn't regulated well in the U.S. and it's easy to get ripped off.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Who the fuck still offers pet insurance? I thought they got rid of that after people started killing their pets for money?

[OzoAndIndi]

I suppose if someone had the money for it and ran into pet health problems it would be a plus. But really though... eh. Somewhat of a waste imo. My family has never had pet insurance. There have been instances, mainly one, where it would have been a good thing and the bills out of pocket were a bit pricy, but how often do most people really run into this though? Not like most people have animals that constantly battle an expensive health issue, and in that case a pet would be more likely to be put down than made to continually suffer with it. Setting aside a special savings for pet care would make more sense imo.

[Deleted]

Who the fuck still offers pet insurance? I thought they got rid of that after people started killing their pets for money?

Thats fucked up, in the UK the vet claims directly from your insurer, the owner does not receive any money.

[Martyn 470]

Coming from someone who's always had dogs, do it.
It's relatively cheap compared to what could happen and the prices involved.

My family never got our second cat insured from when we got him as a kitten, he then got attacked in the back field and we had to take him to the emergency vet because his injuries were that horrific, unfortunately we lost him after two weeks, but the price of the care was £1500+, it's completely worth it.

[Deleted]

Not worth it. Save up the money instead. Insurrance should only be used on stuff that is super expensive, like accidently damaging something expensive or having your house burn down in a fire.

This assumes that you don't usually do stupid things.

[Tziva]

A dog being papered doesn't matter. What matters is how much you can save out of your income to pay for the potentally expensive visit.

I think you misunderstood that I meant - papers don't matter for pet insurance at all, and I didn't mean to imply they would. However, if my hypothetical dog costs thousands of dollars because it was some purebreed, I personally would be more likely to purchase it. One, because purebreeds usually have more health issues than mutts just due to limited genetic diversity and might be more likely to benefit from it. Two, because the fact the animal was also a huge financial investment would be more likely to justify dumping more money into it saving it, should it get sick.

I'm not the type of person to ever own an expensive dog, so it's all hypothetical anyway.

Any responsible pet owner has to make sure they can afford their pet, whether it's by purchasing health insurance for them to cover emergency or whether it's just saving money to pay out of pocket should something arise. Unfortunately you can't say which is a better value because, like I said, it depends on if you ever need to put a claim in on it and how big it is. If your monthly premium is costly for good coverage and your dog never gets sick, then it will seem like money down the drain. However, if you have major claims that you never could have afforded out of pocket and were able to save an animal you wouldn't have been able to otherwise, the small monthly fee will seem like a good deal.

But you can say that about any kind of insurance: it's a "waste of money" until you actually need it, then it's pretty damn awesome.

[Deleted]

I don't know about how it is in the states but here in sweden it can be worth it, know a couple that had a dog that got cancer and died and they got the 15000 swedish crowns they spent on it back, that would be around 8000$

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Thats fucked up, in the UK the vet claims directly from your insurer, the owner does not receive any money.

So what's to stop me from adopting a dog every now and then and taking him to my brother the vet when he is mysteriously poisoned?

[Pancunchi]

yes