PET INSURANCE

WHAT IS A PET?

A pet is an animal kept solely for the owner’s companionship and/or for the purpose of entertainment. It is usually not for laboratory, livestock, or a working animal. pet insurance represents an important aspect of our animal life.

In most cases, Dogs and cats represent the commonest pet animals in the world. Other animals include; fish, crocodiles, rabbits, pigs, parrots rodents etc.

People who keep pets derive both emotional and physical benefits from doing so. For example, pets give companionship to its keepers/owners who live alone. They also serve as a means of exercising the body for its keepers, especially when taking the pet on a street walk. And equally serves as well as means of social interaction.

Another advantage of pets is that it serves as a source of protection to its keepers as well as their properties. And equally promotes the aesthetic value of the home.

Consequently, it is as a result of these enormous benefits that pet lovers cannot avoid keeping them. And the available reasons while so many people do not keep pets are lack of finance to care for them as well dearth of time.

MEANING OF PET INSURANCE

Pet insurance is an insurance policy that operates to mitigate or minimize the cost of keeping Pets .For instance, coverage with respect to the cost of veterinary bills.

Pet insurance can be used interchangeably as health insurance for your pets. It mitigates financial loss as a result of emergency veterinary checks on them.

CATEGORIES

They are two major categories of pet insurance and they include;

1. Comprehensive coverage.
2. Accident coverage

COMPREHENSIVE PET INSURANCE COVERAGE

This category of pet insurance coverage represents the highest level of insurance cover you can get for your pets.

 It covers loses arising from accidents and illnesses unlike the accident-only insurance cover. The amount of premium payable under comprehensive pet insurance policy is higher when compared to accident-only insurance coverage. And this is because, the scope of coverage is always higher. However, there is an existence of higher reimbursement rates when compared with other classes of pet insurance policy.

Comprehensive pet insurance policy covers your pets over a wide range of accidents and illnesses which may include; surgery, cancer treatment, x-rays, skin conditions, de-worming, hospitalisations, etc and these largely depends on your insurance companies.

However, comprehensive pet insurance policy may not cover your pet against pre- existing health/accident conditions. Others may include pregnancy of your pets, banned breeds, behavioral issues as well as illnesses preventable by vaccination.

ACCIDENT ONLY COVERAGE:

This category of coverage is only available in the event of accidents only. And as a result does not extent to coverage for illnesses. The extent of the coverage here includes injuries, bites from other animals or insects, poisoning and general accidents.

The primary advantage of accident-only pet insurance coverage is the premium. It is not expensive in comparison with its comprehensive counterpart. That is to say, it comes with cheap premiums.

In a Similar vein, accidents-only pet insurance coverage equally presents much cheaper premiums for younger pets which are more unlikely to have bad health conditions.

However, it is always at ones discretion to check out what a particular policy will cover when buying pet insurance plan. For instance, some insurance companies my cover third party liabilities while others may not. While some may cover bad health conditions that developed as a result of the accident, some others may not. And moreover, you should equally check out if your policy will cover incidents such as poisoning and attacks from other animals.

In addition, some insurance companies can even offer you coverage for losses arising from delays from embarking on holidays as a result of your pet’s accident.

However, the disadvantage with Accident Only Pet Insurance is that it only covers accidents unlike its comprehensive cover counterpart.

OTHER CATEGORIES OF PET INSURANCE POLICY

Apart from the accident-only and comprehensive pet insurance policies, there are other categories of pet insurance and they include;

1.Time limited policy

2.Maximum benefit policy

3. Life time policy.

TIME LIMITED POLICY

This class of pet insurance policy covers your pets for a certain and identifiable length of time. It could be in the form of fixing an amount of money for the treatment of accidents or illness of your pets or in the form of making provision for a certain time for which the insurance company may cover the treatment of injuries and illnesses of your pets. For instance, the period of coverage may be for a period of 6 0r 12 months or as otherwise agreed by the parties from the date of start of treatment. And that is Provided that the policy remains in force. It is noteworthy that the time limitation does not have any connection with the duration of the policy but on the highest level of time the insurance company can bear the expense of treating your pet’s illnesses and injuries. Consequently, when the time elapses, your pet will not be covered for that particular illness.

MAXIMUM BENEFIT POLICY

This is the class of pet insurance policy that makes provision for a maximum benefit your pet can get in the event of illnesses and injuries. In other words, your pet will receive treatment as long as the amount of monetary benefit with respect to the policy remains.

This class just like others does not cover old illnesses and injuries. It only covers new illnesses and injuries.

Here, there is no time limit. The only event that will stop your pets from receiving medical attention is that the amount of money involved in the policy has finished.

LIFE TIME POLICY.

This class of pet insurance policy provides cover for life for your pets. It covers new injuries and illnesses and does not cover ones for which your pets got before the existence of the policy. It covers bills arising from injuries and illnesses and may also include dental care depending on the terms of the policy you have for your pets.

In life time pet insurance cover, there is always an annual monetary cover for which the insurance company undertakes to bear and which is renewable each year.

This class of insurance policy is always the most expensive when compared to all other classes of pet insurance policy. However, it affords you the highest level of peace of mind owing to the rising costs of veterinary treatment running into hundreds and thousands of dollars every year.

With lifetime pet insurance policy in place, your pets will enjoy medical care even in the event of chronic conditions such as diabetes and arthritis as long as you renew the policy annually