Reviewing the best Pet Insurance in Canada
Should you get Pet Insurance or bank cash instead for your pet’s health?
A conversation with a customer recently spurred us to write on pet insurance. They had a pet insurance monthly premium of over $100. Then their dog got sick. After paying the deductible (fixed amount you pay before you can get reimbursed), they got reimbursed 80% of expenses.
Soon after, the monthly premium for the pet went up by 30%. Usually, the standard excuse provided by the pet insurance is that due to vet prices in the area increasing, therefore premiums are as well.
Typically, all pet insurance companies state there is no causation between your insurance claims and price hikes. However subsequently, the dog got sick again and the cost of their pet insurance jumped by another 23%.
In conclusion, instead of getting reimbursed for 80%, they were only reimbursed for 10% of expenses.
Simple explanation of pet/ dog insurance for a Minor Accident
Beginning of Insurance: | Middle of Insurance (30% increase): | Insurance (23% increase) and covered at 10% of costs: | |
Premiums and Reimburse rate | $1200 premium per year paid by dog owner. | $1560 premium per year paid by dog owner. | $1920 premium per year paid by dog owner. |
Example of a Minor Accident/ Illness cost | $3000 | $3000 | $3000 |
Co-insurance (% not covered by insurance.) | 80% reimbursed for treatment costs.
20% not covered by insurance = You pay -$600 |
80% reimbursed for treatment costs.
20% not covered by insurance = You pay -$600 |
10% reimbursed for treatment costs.
90% not covered by insurance = You pay -$2700 |
Subtotal | $2,400 | $2,400 | $300 |
Deductible (the fixed amount you pay yearly in addition to Co-insurance) | You pay additional -$200 | You pay additional -$200 | You pay additional -$200 |
Total Reimbursement by Insurance company | $2,200 | $2,200 | $100 |
What you pay out of pocket this year (Yearly Premium + Co-insurance + Deductible) | 1200+600+200 = $2,000 | 1560+600+200 = $2,360 | 1920+2700+200 = $4,870 |
Better off/ (Worse off) compared to paying for $3000 by yourself | BETTER OFF by $1,000 | BETTER OFF by $640 | WORSE OFF by $1,870 |
Now this little exercise shows that as long as the treatment costs are high and co-insurance and deductibles are low, maybe pet insurance is a really good idea.
Should you get Pet Insurance for your dog or cat?
Some people would wonder why you’d pay more than what most people pay for their monthly BC MSP healthcare for their pet?
Firstly, we are lucky in Canada to have healthcare subsidized by the government making it cheaper than if it was private healthcare. We’ll tell you why we got pet insurance. We would spend what we have and more if anything happened to our dog. Thus, we feel we are limiting our liability.
Secondly, dogs get into injury situations that thinking humans should not. The answer to “should you get pet insurance” is, it depends. We know that answer isn’t great yet we think it really depends on balancing the following factors:
- Type of pet and breed
- Age of dog/cat,
- Propensity for illness/ injury e.g. hip dysplasia,
- Cost of the insurance,
- Likelihood that you will deposit funds into a doggy/kitty account, and
- Probability of the insurance company to process claims promptly without denying them/ increasing co-insurance or deductibles after claims.
- Likelihood that you will spend all you have to care for your pet
Finally, to be sure we are on the same page, we have to define pet insurance as just in case your pet has accidents (external force) or falls ill. Note that routine checks and vet’s consultation fees are typically not covered.
Review of the 4 top Pet Insurance Plans in Canada. Which pet insurance is the best?
We decided to compare four of the most common pet insurance companies and choose the “most popular/ regular” plan to give you an idea of what they cost and cover:
Dog: Cleo (actually a cat’s name),
Type: Staffordshire Bull Terrier (she eats like one at least)
Age: 4 years (she thinks she’s a spring chicken)
Here are the comparables including exclusion info. We put the CONS first because most of what we’d want covered are more important than ‘nice’ little riders we don’t necessarily need. Note that most of the information for insurance is in their policy wording yet not everyone reads them before signing up. We tried to accurately capture them below based on our read:
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President’s Choice
PC Insurance BC |
BCAA Pet Insurance | Trupanion Pet Insurance | Petsecure Pet Insurance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Premiums
and deductible |
$70.06 monthly on the Choice Plan.
Deductible based on dog’s age is $200. |
$50.79 monthly on the Intermediate Plan.
Deductible based on dog’s age is $200. |
$127.19 monthly on the most popular Plan.
Deductible is $200 per condition. |
$63.50 monthly on the most popular Plan.
Deductible based on dog’s age is $300. |
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Coverage by insurance | 80% coverage | 80% coverage | 90% coverage excluding examination fees and taxes. | 80% coverage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What’s covered | “All accidents, all illnesses” | Accidents, illnesses | Accidents, illnesses | Accidents, illnesses | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Accident Coverage | Up to $2,500 per accident | Up to $2,500 accident and illness coverage combined annually! Limit renews each year | 90% of expenses, No limit.
Since no sales taxes are covered, it may work out to about 80% of expenses. |
Up to $2,500 per accident | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Illness Coverage | Up to $2,500 per illness, per year | Up to $2,500 per illness, per year | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alternative therapy coverage | $350 per year | $350 per year | Additional alternative therapy costs $16.47 premium per month. | $350 per year | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Main Cons- |
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Pros |
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More info- Policy papers and sample | PC Insurance Policy Paper | BCAA Policy Paper | Trupanion Policy Paper | Pet Secure Policy Paper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ratings from a website called petinsurancereview
Note that they make money by having people get quotes through their website. (trust the reviews with a grain of salt. Talk to other pet owners you may know) |
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JUST IN CASE you are tempted by their Basic Plan because of the lower premiums, here are the Main Cons that you should consider– | Basic plan called ACCIDENT PLAN
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Basic plan called COMPACT PLAN
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Basic plan
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** It is especially relevant to point out that the language for BCAA, Petsecure and PC were almost identical for their policy document. This is due to the fact that they are ALL underwritten by Western Financial Insurance Company. Out of these 3, choose the company that has the highest accident/ illness limit, covers more issues, has the lowest deductible and best track record of processing claims positively. On the other hand, Omega General Insurance Company (Canada) underwrites Trupanion.
As pet owners did we get dog insurance?
We had pet insurance for Shinji but we did consider the option of banking that cash into an account for Shinji. Consequently, we used his bank account for his food, travel/daycare, and supplies.
There had been times that we had considered taking him off insurance because the deductible or the premium had risen. However, we’ve opted to stay with the insurance as he aged. Honestly, we are glad we have because routine surgeries can cost at least $1500 excluding tests. Even minor issues like taking out lumps to ensure they are not cancerous are expenses that a lot of pet owners will have to make a decision about. Seems like, even when you have a bank account for your pet’s healthcare, you’d have to pick and choose what would be considered serious enough to warrant a vet visit.
Therefore, whatever your decision, we’d advise that you start early. This will give you time to grow decent savings by the time anything unfortunate happens. In the case of insurance, it will therefore ensure that you are covered for a wider range of issues. For adoptions, make sure to get the whole health history as this may probably impact the pre-existing clause.
*Disclaimer- Note that this is not an exhaustive exercise. Let us know if we missed any info or misprinted.
Let us know if you have pet insurance? Why did you choose that dog or cat insurance? Consequently, has the pet insurance company lived up to expectations? Above all, are your pissed off with the claims process and premiums for your pet insurance.