Plan Ahead For Fido's $4000 Knee Surgery

Sun Herald

Sunday June 11, 2006

Debra Cleveland

Medical insurance for pets can save you thousands of dollars, writes Debra Cleveland.

WHEN Margaret Koorey faced a vet's bill for $4000 recently, she was thrilled she'd taken out pet medical insurance - she got back $3000 from the insurer.

She first took out the cover almost eight years ago as a safety measure because she was leaving her treasured standard poodle, Rani, with a friend while she and her husband travelled around Australia for 3 1/2 months.

For just under $42 a month, Rani's on top cover, insured for accidents and illness as well as some routine visits and medication.

"I nearly always get back 80 per cent," Koorey says. "And I'm happy being on the highest scale because it covers us for lots of things, including heartworm tablets and flea and tick prevention."

Australians are big spenders when it comes to their pets, and vet bills are among the largest expenses. In 2002, a BIS Shrapnel report showed, pet owners across the nation spent $4 billion on their animal friends, with veterinary charges second only to food in terms of where that money went.

If the idea of taking out health insurance for your pet sounds ridiculous, how would you feel if your much-loved dog injured its cruciate ligament and needed knee surgery costing anything between $1000 and $4000? Or if your adored cat got pancreatitis and needed tests and treatment costing $500-plus?

Veterinarian Hendrika Tegelaar, of Seaforth Veterinary Hospital, says she recommends the insurance. "It means when they come in with their pets that they get the best treatment they can possibly get and not worry about how much it's going to cost them," she says. "Often you know you can save a sick animal but if the owner can't afford it they have to be put down."

WHAT'S ON OFFERAs with human health insurance, there are different levels of cover.

The most broad-brush approach is to include your pets in your home and contents insurance. Not all insurers allow this. The ones that do include RACQ Insurance, Australian Unity and GIO Australia.

With RACQ, for example, an extra $50 ($30 for the second pet) will insure your pet against illness (including tick paralysis) for up to $500 a year. To start the insurance the animal has to be between six weeks and 10 years. Australian Unity will cover vets' bills for up to $300 a year if your pet is injured. And GIO will pay up to $500 a year.

Or you could go for specialist cover with one of at least six animal insurers (as shown in the accompanying table). Although these offer differing cover, they're all administered by one company, PetSure.

Which one you choose will ultimately be a cost decision. Look carefully, though, because there are subtle differences that could leave you out of pocket.

When it comes to levels of cover there is accident insurance (for if the animal is knocked over by a car or poisoned), illness insurance (pancreatitis, for example) and a combination of both (which we call comprehensive insurance in the table).

Some insurers go a step further (comprehensive-plus in the table) and offer accident and illness insurance as well as covering routine trips to the vet (for desexing, vaccinations and microchips) and preventive drugs for heartworm and ticks, for instance.

If you're interested in this top cover, ask the insurer to spell out what's offered on top of accident and illness: is it just routine treatment or does it extend to merchandise at the vet? Also ask about the annual limit for the top layer (on top of accident and illness cover). It may be $100 a year, in which case you need to work out whether to pay the extra premium or just take out comprehensive cover.

BURIED IN THE FINE PRINT

Look out for exclusions. Most policies exclude congenital defects, breed-specific conditions and pre-existing conditions. In the table, AFS-PetMed excludes tick paralysis but PetSure managing director Shaun Leveton says this is because preventive drugs are offered with its comprehensive-plus cover.

The excess, too, can be important. Most apply per condition, so if Fido is treated by your vet you'll pay an initial excess but you won't have to pay next time he's seen for the same complaint. But if your policy imposes an excess for every claim, you will have to pay each time.

Also, check how the annual limits are broken down. Of the policies in the table, Petsecure is the only one that does not have annual limits for certain areas - so much for hospital, or so much for drugs.

And look at the extras. The emergency boarding fees, for example, mean that if you go into hospital (for more than four days in most cases), you won't have to worry about Fido because your policy pays for boarding fees for a certain time under these circumstances (usually up to $160 a year).

© 2006 Sun Herald

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