The Best Present for Your Pet – Pet Insurance!
With the real or perceived expenses of health care for our pets, most people have chosen to insure their pet with one of the pet care insurances available. Nothing is more tragic than having to decide to euthanize your dog, cat or horse because the price to have them fixed is too high for the family budget.
It is a tragedy for the family, pet and veterinary staff who all have as their goal to do the best for the pet.
Yes we can put the blame on the rising cost of living, the government, the veterinarian or clinic or anything of your choice. This however, will not do anything for the pet being euthanized. There are several pet insurances on the market these days to help in this dilemma. Some are great in covering everything you want, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, chiropractic’s and even homeopathy! Some of them are very limited in their coverage, have small print which excludes certain conditions, limit coverage, have high portions to be paid by you and some change their policies and you don’t get the money back you were expecting.
Bedwell prefers online banking.
Since pet insurance has been on the market we have experienced many frustrations and have seen people discontinue pet insurance because of their disappointments with them. I have to confess, I am one of those! I firmly belief in pet insurance and became tired of the ongoing battle for reimbursements for my own pets as for well as many of my clients pets. Having several pets myself, I too can be presented any time with a situation where I face a big bill to fix one of my pets! So as a birthday and Christmas present for my own pets I opened a bank account for them, called “pet insurance”. Now I put $100 in that account every month instead of into an insurance company! I figured for my current three pets that’s what it likely would cost if I had pet insurance elsewhere. If you start as a puppy or kitten; it quickly builds up even over 1 year. I consider it to be an emergency fund, to dip into when the bill is higher than my monthly budget! And I am the one who decides if the bill gets paid from that savings account! It makes me feel that I am more in control!
Of course it requires the self-discipline to put the money in every month, maybe automatic transfers might be an option! If the pet does not use it at all or some of it during its lifetime; you can then transfer some of it into a new pet’s account and use the rest for your own pleasure, or donate it into a fund to help other pets. Like the Marshmallow Fund at Phoenix Rising Veterinary Care.
Just a thought if you feel caring and loving towards your pet, instead of buying another collar or leash, talk to your bank and ask if you can open a sub-account under your own account with the name of pet insurance.
Dr. Marlene
