Choice Pet insurance update – the Shonkys award
At the beginning of this month Choice brought out an assessment of the pet insurance market. It was damning.
@VetHQ we want to put up all the facts and not just a biased media rant. Don’t get us wrong, we completely agree with everything that was said by Choice. The only problem with the article is that they brought no positives to the table and nor did they address the main issue, as far as I am concerned. That is, why we get insurance in the first place.
Below, I have done what my father taught me to do many years ago when you have an issue, split the page in two and write the positives down one side and the negatives down the other.
POSITIVES
insurance is for the big things – accident and illness and insurance companies cover between 75-100% of the claim and may or may not have a fixed excess as well. Insurance is not for preventative care.
There is now a cumulative mass of animals insured in this country so we don’t have to worry about the companies going bust
All animals at 8-10 weeks of age can get insurance. Please check when purchasing or adopting a pet if they are already insured.
@VetHQ we process all insurance claims for you
@VetHQ we will argue with the insurance company on your behalf if they don’t pay out what you expect to get. Sometimes this does not always go our way.
NEGATIVES
- Exclusions are a massive issue. Especially if you have pre-existing disease. The insurance companies are saving plenty of pennies by citing ‘pre existing’. NOTE A new policy Vets Choice now cover pre existing conditions to some degree
- Kick backs or Co- Payments. Some insurance companies off the veterinarian or other industry partners kick backs. This creates a potential to have conflicts of interest. NOTE @VetHQ we have never received any financial incentive from an insurance company in return for selling their policies. I personally find that abhorrent.
- Consultation exclusion, some policies from one particular provider have excluded all consults. This is fine unless you are unlucky enough to have an afterhours consult or a specialist consult.
- One provider of insurance has over 30 brands. These are all in essence the same policy or similar with slightly different bells and whistles. In itself there is nothing wrong with that however, when people ring up to change policy to another of their policies they have been known to actively encourage it and do not warn the client that all previous issues will be characterised as pre existing and not be covered. This is deliberately misleading.
- The same group of policies have put a sublimit on cruciate (ACL knee ligament) claims and believe that cruciates are one disease neglecting there is a left and a right. We have evidence to prove 50% of dogs will rupture their other cruciate.
- Routine care is not covered as a general rule and if it is, you pay for it. NOTE: To be honest, I don’t see this as a true negative because we insure our pets for peace of mind for accident and illness, not routine care. Like a motor vehicle, we expect to have to put fuel in the car and wash it every now and then. Just like parking in the car park in Double Bay, we expect the odd, perhaps daily nudge from the AWD parked next to us.
- Dental disease is not covered under most policies. NOTE: Pet plan, Prosure, and Vets Choice cover a degree of dental procedures.
I hope this helps. Now that you have gotten to this point, please click the link below to go to the Choice report:
View the Choice Report
