Insuring Your Pet

Insurance may not be the most exciting subject, but it is critical for the long-term well being of your pet. Pets are living longer than ever, and medical advances mean that we can improve the quality of life for your pet, but the advances are often quite costly.

The right Pet Insurance doesn’t just cover the accidents, such as broken bones, it also covers ongoing treatment, for example, pain relief for arthritis, or heart disease medication and dental treatment. The right Pet Insurance policy will also cover treatments you may not have considered before, such as behaviour treatment or acupuncture.
A proper Pet Insurance policy can remove the financial worry of doing the best for your pet, however it is not like insuring your car – shopping around for the lowest price will often mean that you could get caught out later. It is important that you look for the following when buying a policy:

• Make sure it does not limit or remove cover after you make a claim. The insurance policy you want is one that will cover for life.
• This means that they will not restrict the condition after 12 months, or provide an insufficient level of cover.
• Make sure there are no exclusions built in to the cover.
• It should not stop when the pet reaches a certain age – just when they need the reassurance of a policy to cover lifetime illness.
• All lower cost policies that we are aware of limit cover for dentistry or exclude it completely. Claims for dentistry are the most common single claim made by our clients.
• Make sure there is a ‘realistic’ vet fee policy cover, you never know when you may need to be referred to a specialist for treatment or your pet may need to undergo treatment and procedures that may not be fully covered financially by your policy.

Remember, once you have bought a policy and made a claim on it, it is difficult and can be more costly to change to another insurer if you are unhappy with the service or cost of the policy. Your pet’s illness will be listed as a ‘pre-existing condition’ and a new insurance policy will not cover treatment should your pet still require treatment.

If you have an existing policy and are thinking of changing or cancelling, please call Animal Medical Centre for advice first on 020 8450 2228.