Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [13]
Companies also define the age breaks differently. For example, PetsHealth Plan defines eligible cats as being between the age of eight weeks and prior to turning eleven, with additional premiums that apply to cats over that age; once enrolled, coverage can continue for the lifetime of your pet. For PetPlan Insurance, you can start the insurance anytime from eight weeks to the cat’s tenth birthday, and the premiums stay the same as the cat ages, but the deductible increases for cats at ten years of age for the basic plan. VPI defines age brackets for general premium increases as eight weeks to one year; one to four years; five to seven years; eight to nine years; and ten and over with an increase each year thereafter.
It’s important to purchase insurance as early as possible, before health problems develop. Not every preexisting condition disqualifies the cat from coverage--if he’s fully recovered from being hit by a car, for example, that wouldn’t preclude coverage. But some pets become uninsurable as they get older and may not be covered if they’ve already had cancer. If your pet has had a condition that is potentially life threatening and a recurrent problem, then it would be come uninsurable.
In fact, some companies offer special coverage for catastrophic illness at a very low rate, if you purchase it when the cat is young and still healthy. VPI’s “cancer rider” doubles the benefits for any diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The premium cost is locked in when it is purchased before the pet is two years old.
Coverage varies, so find a policy that’s either available nationwide, or in your specific neck of the woods. Certain plans participate only with listed network veterinarians (similar to some human HMOs); others allow a choice of any practitioner. Additional differences may include variations in the cost of the deductible or higher premiums for certain metropolitan areas that have higher typical veterinary fees.
Most basic plans will cover only accident and illness and routine care such as vaccinations, spay/neuter surgeries, teeth cleaning and flea treatments generally require additional coverage. For example, VPI coverage addresses more than 6,400 health conditions, including diagnosis and treatment for liver, heart and kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer, which are most common in aging cats.
Alternative medical care—chiropractic and acupuncture for example—also may be covered as long as it is prescribed and performed by a veterinarian. Even experimental therapies such as kidney transplants, innovative cancer therapies, hearing aids and the like may be covered when recommended by the veterinarian. Pet insurance companies may encourage specialist referrals by offering price breaks, believing their diagnostics and treatments are more effective and ultimately save money in the end.
In Canada the percentage of insured pets is only about 0.5 percent. In Europe the acceptance of pet health insurance is far more common. In the United Kingdom over 15 percent of all pets are insured, and in Sweden over 41 percent of all pets are insured.
Insured pets are still a minority in the U.S. pet population. There are about 850,000 insured pets in the nation, the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues reported. The numbers of insured pets in the United States barely doubles that of Canada. Experts estimate that the entire pet health insurance industry is a little bit less than one percent of all pets owned in the U.S, and not more than a third