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| Veterinary Pet Insurance |
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The biggest (roughly 400,000 customers) and oldest (since 1982) of the pet insurance companies, VPI's plans are increasingly offered as a benefit to employees at Fortune 500 companies.
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| 1-800-USA-PETS www.petinsurance.com |
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Of all the pet insurance companies, VPI offers policy holders the greatest transparency, with "Benefit Schedules" (or tables with fixed maximum fees for reimbursements) that can be downloaded right from their website. We also like that VPI will issue new policies to dogs of any age and that "pre-existing condition restrictions" don't "re-set" every time you renew your policy, meaning that a disease your dog contracts this year will still be covered next year (as long as your policy doesn't lapse).
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Unfortunately, as VPI's "Benefit Schedules" make clear, the company's fixed payouts may cover only a small portion of the actual cost of care. In other words, you can be left holding a very heavy bag, especially if you live in an expensive part of the country. To make matters worse, because VPI actually reimburses only 90 percent of the amount listed on the official "Benefit Schedules," payouts are even lower than they appear.
Here's one example: Stricken with some sort of gastrointestinal trouble, our dog recently wound up in the hospital for two days, attached to intravenous fluids, given X-rays, and tested for this and that. The final bill came to $1,316, but as far as we can tell the absolute maximum VPI would have reimbursed us was $340. You get the idea.
One more thing: While VPI accepts dogs of any age, the company's premiums rise so sharply with age that dogs ten years or older might as well be cut off.
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Standard Plan
Cost: Starts at $109 a year.
Quigley's Cost: $192 a year.
Coverage: After a $50 per-incident deductible, plan reimburses up to 90 percent of each procedure's payout listed on the company's Benefit Schedules. The reimbursement limit is $2,500 per incident and $9,000 a year.
Medical Care Covered: Almost everything other than annual check-ups. VPI boasts that it covers more than 4,000 maladies including diagnostic tests, prescriptions, treatments, hospitalizations, X-rays, lab fees and surgeries.
Medical Care Not Covered: Annual physical exams, vaccinations, dental cleaning, pre-existing conditions, congenital or hereditary defects, elective procedures (tail dockings, skin-folds, nail trims), and something known as "conditions relating to breeding."
Quigley's Coverage: His treatment for bloat and lymphoma would be covered and reimbursed up to $1,034 and $1,136 respectively, when taking into account the 90 percent payout limit. Surgery for his broken leg would also be covered, but his annual checkup and dental cleaning would not.
Age restriction: None, though prices rise sharply as your dog gets older. For example, a dog like Quigley who pays $192 a year when he's five will pay $254 a year when he's eight, $355 a year when he's ten, and $434 when he's 13.
Breed restriction: None
Pre-existing condition restriction: Yes
Superior Plan
Cost: Starts at $195 a year
Quigley's Cost: $348 a year.
Coverage: After a $50 per-incident deductible, plan reimburses up to 90 percent of each procedure's payout listed on the company's Benefit Schedules. Payouts are slightly more generous under this plan than under the Standard plan, up to $1,993 for "gastric torsion," for example, versus $1,149. The reimbursement limit for this plan is $4,500 per incident and $14,000 a year.
Medical Care Covered: Same as Standard Plan
Medical Care Not Covered: Same as Standard Plan.
Quigley's Coverage: His treatment for bloat and lymphoma would be covered and reimbursed up to $1,794 and $1,825 respectively, when taking into account the 90 percent payout limit. Surgery for his broken leg would also be covered, but his annual checkup and dental cleaning would not.
Age restriction: None, though prices rise sharply as your dog gets older. For example, a dog like Quigley who pays $348 a year when he's five will pay $471 a year when he's eight, $606 a year when he's ten, and $717 when he's 13.
Breed restriction: None.
Pre-existing condition restriction: Yes.
Add-On Vaccination and Routine Care Coverage
Cost: $99 a year, on top of the premiums paid for Standard or Superior plans.
Quigley's Cost: $99 a year, plus his premiums noted above.
Coverage: On top of the coverage you already get with your main plan, this add-on offers tiny reimbursements for such things as an annual physical ($10), fecal test ($10), de-worming ($15), vaccines ($6 to $10 each), and six-months of prescription flea control ($15). You also get a choice of one of these procedures each year: spay/neuter ($65), teeth cleaning ($65), or a "comprehensive health screening" ($65).
Quigley's Coverage: His routine checkup and teeth cleaning would be covered and reimbursed up to $75.
Cancer Rider
Cost: Ranges from an extra $9 to $29 a year, depending on age, for dogs enrolled in the Standard Plan. And ranges from an extra $27 to $74 a year, depending on age, for dogs enrolled in the Superior Plan. If you enroll your dog before he or she turns three, you can lock in the lowest rate.
Quigley's Cost: $14 a year under the Standard Plan and $45 a year under the Superior Plan.
Coverage: This rider covers the same cancer treatments as the Standard and Superior plans, but offers twice as high a reimbursement.
Medical Care Covered: Includes the same cancers covered by the Standard and Superior plans: lung cancer, thyroid cancer, lymphosarcoma, skin cancer, intestinal cancer and leukemia.
Medical Care Not Covered: Some congenital and hereditary cancers, such as histiocytosis in Bernese mountain dogs and collagenous nevus in German shepherds, are excluded from coverage.
Quigley's Coverage: Maximum payouts for lymphoma would increase to $2,272 on the Standard plan and $3,650 on the Superior plan, taking into account the 90 percent payout limit.
Pre-existing condition restriction: Yes. Cancer developed before the policy's start-date is not covered. But recurring treatments over year-to-year renewals are, providing coverage has not lapsed during that time.
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