# Healthy Paws or Pet Plan



## Luce (Mar 4, 2013)

Healthy paws is more expensive per month, they do not have 100% reimbursement, higher deductibles and do not pay for the vet visit.

I just signed up my new dog a few weeks ago with Petplan. Poodle mix, $200 deductible, 100% reimbursement - about $25/ month, that is the bronze plan with 10k per year coverage.

Similar plan with Healthypaws is. Poodle mix, $250 deductible, 90% reimbursement - $35.57/month. To get close to the same monthly payment with Healthypaws, it has a $500 deductible, 70% reimbursement for $26.53 

Healthy paws does have unlimited coverage, but I am not worried about going over the 10k/year from Petplan.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Luce said:


> Healthy paws is more expensive per month, they do not have 100% reimbursement, higher deductibles and do not pay for the vet visit.
> 
> I just signed up my new dog a few weeks ago with Petplan. Poodle mix, $200 deductible, 100% reimbursement - about $25/ month, that is the bronze plan with 10k per year coverage.
> 
> ...



You just about said it all Luce! My girls have the gold, $22,000 policy, which probably is overkill, but since there is not a huge difference for the extra coverage, I figured I might as well. One of my previous dogs did get close to that amount, costing about $15,000 in vet care over her final months (not insured!), so I appreciate the extra security.

The two things that I will add is that your coverage amount renews every policy period, so if say Teaka, God forbid, got sick now, come September when her policy renews, we would have a full $22,000 to spend again.

And I will add that I have probably submitted 30-40 claims in the past three years that I have been a customer of Petplan (2-3 dogs), and I have found them extremely fair and reasonable to work with, was satisfied each and every time, which is a wonderful thing to know about an insurance company. Writing a policy that sounds good is something that any company can do, but always interpreting the policy fairly, in favor of the consumer, and not trying to wriggle out of paying when the time comes is very admirable! To be perfectly honest with you, there were several times when I, having some medical background could see where they might be able to legitimately claim that something was not covered and was getting my arguments ready for them, but much to my delight, they never even tried it, they just paid! My oldest two were ten years old when they were signed up, so that could have left a lot of wiggle room for them, but much to my surprise and delight, they never even tried it!

And yes, I do love having 100 percent coverage. Such a relief to be able to say that nothing can cost me more than my $200 deductible - once that is spent, anything and everything that my girls need costs me ZERO for the rest of the year!
You can't say that with a 90 percent coverage and having every single vet visit uncovered!


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

Interesting, I can't find one review site that doesn't put Healthy Paws as #1 but I can see the unlimited feature and per claim deductible not being that big a deal, need to run a spreadsheet


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

Pet Plan terms say

"In order for coverage to apply you must take your dog to the vet within 48 hours of noticing symptoms of an illness or injury. What if it’s a Friday and the vet is closed on the weekend?"

This seems both strict and somewhat vague - any experiences ?


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

Also, with a $200 per incident deductible, do you submit a claim even if it's below $200 ?

Also not quite clear on what is covered as relates to routine. For example with one of our older dogs he often gets rashes after grooming, they usually need treatment and steroids to resolve. Would something like that be covered ?


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

homemadehitshow said:


> Pet Plan terms say
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Not an issue. Like I said, they always interpret their policy very fairly, so I doubt they would ever enforce that clause unless you were blatantly negligent. I have had things going on with my girls for longer than two days before I decided that it had been going on too long and it was time to take them to the vet.
Like "she has been hoping around on three legs for the past two weeks" vs "I have noticed for the past two weeks that every once in awhile she will pick that paw up for a minute and hop, and then she walks normally again".

And by the way, when I was shopping for plans, I did look at my former dog's bills in her last year and what several companies would have paid, and the 90% and not covering vet visits did amount to a significant amount. Of course It would have meant a great deal if she had been covered by any policy, and I would have reported great satisfaction if I had for example gotten $10,000 out of $15,000 back, but Petplan would have given me $14,800 back!
And in fact, even after I had the policy and my first two claims paid I was still wondering, and compared what Petplan paid me to my second choice Trupanion, and yup, I still came out about $800 ahead with Petplan!


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

Yes, in reviewing all the policies ratings I didn't actually think about the 100% v 90% + vet charge issue. My spreadsheet was pretty simple. Pet Plan wins by $1000s in all scenarios.

Now the biggest thing, and I did confirm this. Pet Plan Chat told me that once a dog is 7 (I think 7) Healthy Paws will only cover 70% with a $500 deductible. Pet Plan continues it's coverage, with higher rates of course.

Additionally Healthy Paws is self funded, Pet Plan uses insurance brokers.


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

I should note that for Silver or Gold with $200 deductible and 100% coverage Healthy Paws is cheaper, but not by much.


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

Pre-existing health problems are not covered by Pet Plan. That is why most people get insurance for puppies. They will request your vets medical records for 2 years the first time you submit a claim.

If the dog is adopted as an adult and you have no previous medical records, I do not know.how they would determine if something is pre-existing.

Tiny Poodles can correct me if I am wrong.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

homemadehitshow said:


> Yes, in reviewing all the policies ratings I didn't actually think about the 100% v 90% + vet charge issue. My spreadsheet was pretty simple. Pet Plan wins by $1000s in all scenarios.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



When I signed my older girls up at age 10, about half the companies would not take them at all. I did not realize that Healthy paws would force a cutback in the coverage for even their current customers once they reach a certain age - that is horrible!
Of course the Petplan cost does go up as they age (13 year old Teaka's is about 3 times what Timi's is), but I can't complain - in these past 3 years, Petplan has probably paid me $10,000 - $15,000 more than I have paid them on the three dogs. Even though Teaka's plan is getting to be pricey, still with the minimum two cardiologists visits a year that she now requires we will break even. And what a relief it is that any time I get worried, we can have an extra visit on Petplan - when I felt that Teaka's belly was getting bigger, and she was coughing a lot, only maybe 5 weeks after seeing the cardiologist, I brought her in again, and not only did Petplan cover it, they covered at the emergency rate, not the specialist rate.
Oh, and that is what I mean when I say that Petplan is very reasonable in their interpretation of their policies - at first they only covered it at the specialist rate (Teaka turned out to be fine, no changes in her cardiac status, but they did find benign nodules on her liver). But then I said to them, how was I to know that it was not a life threatening emergency until the doctor determined that - she had the same symptoms as her sister Tangee who died at the same hospital two months earlier.
And they immediately reviewed the records, said you are right, you couldn't have known, and sent me a second check for the balance.
And by the way, I might point out that they COULD have hit me for a second deductible for the benign liver nodules that they found when they were doing the ultrasound, but they didn't, never even brought that up to me.
Now are you understanding why I adore Petplan so much? I wish we could make this a sticky, I must sound like a broken record to some members here lol!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

MiniPoo said:


> Pre-existing health problems are not covered by Pet Plan. That is why most people get insurance for puppies. They will request your vets medical records for 2 years the first time you submit a claim.
> 
> If the dog is adopted as an adult and you have no previous medical records, I do not know.how they would determine if something is pre-existing.
> 
> Tiny Poodles can correct me if I am wrong.



Not covering pre-existing problems is true of all pet health insurance companies, not just Petplan.
I was pretty lucky that Tangee and Teaka had almost nothing pre-existing when 
I signed them up (Tangee's heart murmur was found maybe 3 months later!) and Timi was signed up on the day that she came home.
And it is true that they will ask for two years back medical records when you make the first claim (or you can provide them and get an underwriting done so that you know right from the start what will be excluded or have a waiting period - some things will be covered again if it has been "cured" and enough time elapses before it comes back).
If you don't have two years of previous medical records then the first Vet exam after they are covered (which you should get before 2 weeks elapses) will be the determination of any pre-existing problems.

FYI, the contract states that they must have a Vet exam once a year, but I asked Petplan "my girls are always going to the Vet for one thing or another, do I have to also take them in for a physical when nothing is going on", they said no, as long as your vet documents a full exam when they go in for something, that will count for the annual exam requirement.


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

It's hard to see how they make money. I think most people who signup for insurance are likely to make use of it.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

homemadehitshow said:


> It's hard to see how they make money. I think most people who signup for insurance are likely to make use of it.



Sometimes I do wonder about that, but I guess that the majority still don't use it. Like I said, Tangee and Teaka had virtually nothing pre-existing when they signed up at age ten. If I had been paying in for all of those years, Petplan would have fared much better. And I certainly will be signing all of my dogs up from day one from now on!


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

Most young dogs won't have a lot of expensive medical issues. Someone at my vets had insurance for years and never needed to submit a claim. So they cancelled. Sure enough. His dog had a major medical problem right after that. So we might go years thinking maybe we are wasting our money. So I think we should just consider the premiums another cost of ownership, like grooming.


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

My previous standard had issues his whole life but his puppy issues were a couple of surgeries for eating socks and the like. Would have been worth it but the plans were poor then.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

MiniPoo said:


> Most young dogs won't have a lot of expensive medical issues. Someone at my vets had insurance for years and never needed to submit a claim. So they cancelled. Sure enough. His dog had a major medical problem right after that. So we might go years thinking maybe we are wasting our money. So I think we should just consider the premiums another cost of ownership, like grooming.



I used to think that too, but Petplan always says that the first two years is the most expensive, and lately with all of the issues happening on PF, I am starting to believe it!


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