Do you have it?
Who’s the best? Ant scams I should be aware of?
I have two 5 yr old dogs, healthy at the moment. But both have had some issues in the past and ‘emergency’ visits cost us a wad of cash. Considering pet insurance. But I have never had it nor have I known anyone who has. Is it like getting a card and having to look for vets who will take it?
There’s an existing thread that covered this thoroughly some months ago. Try searching for and see if that answers your questions. I’d suggest how to search for it or link to it, but I don’t know how to-I’m a MB newbie.
Ok. That thread starts with: “The Pros and Cons of Pet Insurance”. I searched and found it but still don’t know how to link to it.
Yeah, stay away from pet insurance for ants. The colony will churn out new ants faster than you can take a sick ant to the vet 
What sorts of emergencies did your dogs have? In general, emergency visits are very rare, so I’m not sure you should base the future visits on what happened with these visits unless it’s some sort of chronic health issue.
There’s likely a deductible which you’ll rarely meet, or have to pay a higher bill per month. A breed with a healthy outlook I wouldn’t get it. If it’s one with a known breed issue (or multiple, hi pugs), it might be a good idea.
The main scam I’m aware of is the “preexisting condition” game. Unless things have changed since ~ 15 years ago, the following may still be true:
Unlike human health insurance, if (let’s say) your cat is diagnosed in 2022 with kidney disease, in 2023 your cat is NOT COVERED ANY MORE for kidney disease because now it’s a “preexisting condition”. This has nothing to do with letting your insurance lapse. It’s not how “preexisting condition” was / is used in health insurance policies that cover our own species. The pet insurances we looked into will cover for any given type of ailment only until the end of the year in which the diagnosis occurred.
Which makes it next to useless.
Don’t assume this IS still true but look into it.
This was my experience. But it was years ago. Like, 2003ish. I got the insurance, asked if they needed to have previous records. Nope. When I tried to put in a claim for her routine vaccinations, I was told that they needed previous records. By that time, I had moved and my previous vet would not send my records. So I never got to use it, but I sure paid for it.
What are you wanting it for? Where I live most vets have a “puppy program” which you prepay and it covers their routine care for the life of the pet. I think they also give a discount for non covered things.
Also check into Care Credit. They can help in an emergency.
I’ve used Trupanion for a long time, it’s been great. They reimbursed me about 85% (maybe more) for my Lab’s cruciate surgeries, a year apart. I also get her allergy meds covered now that I’ve met the deductible.
I got a discount on PetFirst for both my dogs when I got them from rescue. I just had the bare-bones plan, which doesn’t cover routine vet visits or meds, and has a $1000/year max.
My one dog had ACL surgery so I got $1000 knocked off that. Otherwise my dogs have been healthy so in the 7 years I’ve had them I’ve only used the insurance maybe 2 times for skin issues or something.
I looked into more comprehensive plans and they were just too expensive to justify. I always found myself thinking “it’d be cheaper to float that much if I needed it.”
The monthly cost has about doubled at this point. I should cancel soon but now they’re getting older so I’m like “well what if they DO start needing regular care?”
I recently enrolled Huck my Great Dane pup in Trupanion. My understanding is that each illness has its own deductible. It’s not like human health insurance where you have a yearly deductible. Which makes me still wonder if it’s worth it or not.
These two articles answer that question.