Insure or health plan?

[Thatsanotherfinemess]

Our lovely rehomed dog is nearly 10, we've had him just over a week and have a vets appointment on Wed (soonest we could get)for a check up and jabs as he was a couple of months over.
Getting insurance was a nightmare, but expected. Cost around £45 a month. The thing is it doesn't cover anything found in first 14 days, which will be Saturday. So if the vets find something we'll never be covered for treatment, I don't want to put it off as it was hard enough getting this appointment and I think he's had a problem with his ears in the past that needs rechecking, we also want to check we're doing the best thing in terms of diet and weight loss. What would you do?
Pay insurance to cover anything unexpected like broken bones, infections etc and accept the cost of anything not covered OR cancel insurance and get a health plan like vets4pets have to at least discount some regular treatments? We could save the £45 each month just in case?

Well they're two different things. You'll have to pay for jabs, worming/flea treatment anyway so worth getting the vet plan to spread the cost and get discounts.

Personally, I would also take out insurance. Bills can be very expensive for older dogs and you want to be able to make decisions about your dog's health based on what is best for them, not what you can afford. For example our uninsured 10 year old had a leg op this year which cost us £1600. Our late dog notched up about £6k in her last year or two - fortunately she was insured!

£45 pcm insurance for a 10 year old is incredibly cheap. We pay a little more than that for each of our youngest dogs (1 and 4). Why not take it out and see what the vet has to say?

We’ve got insurance with More4 and then also Vets4Pets premium health plan because it really works out for the worm treatment and flea stuff etc. Plus you get a complementary vet consultation included and various toenail cutting and other useful stuff.

Ideally you would have both insurance and a health plan - they're different things completely and you shouldn't rely on a health plan instead of insurance.

£45 per month is a great cost for a dog of that age and definitely worth getting. Vet bills can rack up very very quickly, especially in old dogs. Do you have several thousand pounds going spare?

Both. Without question.

I would say insure if possible but be careful about what the policy covers or doesn't. Nothing worse than paying it and then having claims rejected for some loophole. What will the £45 cover and will it keep covering his ears if they cause long term problems etc. I use bought by many and several options, need to be careful. Very good of yo to help an older dog. Some plans might cover longterm meds for arthritis etc if that happens.

We got the one with cover that keeps renewing every year, can think what it's called now! So if we reach a limit this year, it just resets on the next. It's with "the insurance emporium", waggles was our next option though, but excess was higher.

Definitely be looking at what the healthplan covers too
Thanks everyone x

£45/month for a senior dog where claims will be expected is worryingly cheap, we are £65/month for a 7 year old. I have never heard of Pet Emporium before but be very wary of introductory offers and premiums jumping up excessively, premiums jumping up after claims, not paying out for months or at all.

Ask your vet if they accept direct payments from this company or if you need to pay the bill upfront. This will tell you about their experiences with the company, they will not accept direct payments from an insurer who is slow or challenges/declines claims.

Insurance Emporium are a trading name of E&L who have a poor reputation - agree with the advice above to check if your vet will accept direct claims with them.

Depending on the circumstances of rehoming your dog they may insist on pursuing previous clinical history from the owner or rehoming centre and apply any number of exclusions based on that.

Health plan is a completely separate thing to insurance and will normally cover annual vaccination, parasite prevention and then a variety of other benefits - typically nail clips, % off other services, fixed price dentals etc.

Thanks @currahee and @WeAllHaveWings
I'll chat with the vet, I'm still in my time frame to cancel insurance so thank you for the heads up!
Can anyone recommend a good insurer please?

Insurance for older dogs is expensive, plus the excess is usually higher and you may have to pay a percentage of each treatment on top.

Having said that, I would always insure with the highest lifetime cover policy you can afford, preferably with a reputable insurance company. My dog is over 15 now and a large Lurcher. His monthly premium is £65 and he is a very healthy lad who has only every been ill once in his life, prior to developing arthritis in the last couple of years. We are with PetPlan, mainly because they’ve been consistently reliable, always paid out and we’ve had excellent customer service from them in the 30 plus years we’ve had dogs. Another advantage is that our Vet will deal with them directly, so we never have to pay in advance or fill in complicated claim forms.

We lost our other dog at a relatively young age earlier this year, but not before he’d needed a lot of very expensive tests and treatment over an 18 month period. By the end, PetPlan had paid out in excess of £20,000 for his treatment, which for the most part kept him happy and stable right up until the last month. Without his insurance policy we would have had to pts as soon as he developed the disease, as his first week as an inpatient in a specialist veterinary hospital came to over £7,000 and each weekly follow-up appointment after that was £450 plus meds.

Re health-plans. We haven’t opted in to our vet’s scheme as we worked out it wouldn’t save us any money. (We buy our parasite prevention online, pay for the vets to write a prescription for anything that needs to be prescribed- so that we can source it cheaper online and our dogs’ teeth and claws are well managed by us, so we’ve never needed to book a dental or have their nails clipped etc). Our vet’s scheme does include a percentage off consultations, but with this dog we rarely need one other than the 6 monthly check as he’s on long term meds for his arthritis. So it’s really down to how much of the plan would be beneficial to you.

Both
My dog is almost nine but even with no existing health issues or injuries etc her insurance was £45 a month a couple of years ago

I have never tried to get new insurance for a senior dog before, your policy options are likely to be very limited with any insurer as it is a high risk for them.

We have had petplan since ddog was a pup and they have an excellent reputation. They have paid out several times with no quibbles, directly to the vet. Premiums are higher than some, but they only increase with age not claims.

Even they are unlikely to offer favourable terms for a new policy, but worth a look at. Maybe other posters on here that have insured senior dogs on new policies before can help.

By the time we lost our 11 year old dog we were paying Direct Line about £175 pcm. Sounds absolutely ridiculous I know but the premiums crept up the older she got. They paid out £6k for ear operations and about £2K for a scan which diagnosed an issue with her spine and similar for the scan which diagnosed her terminal cancer. Plus various other bits and pieces, including medication for her arthritis. I think we at least broke even.

Our two young dogs are insured with Pet Plan and premiums are around the £50 pcm mark (each) - but will of course increase with age. Pet Plan was recommended by our vet.

We have another dog who isn't insured and he had to have a cruciate ligament op a few years ago which cost us £3.5k, plus another leg op which cost £1600.

If you can't afford to pay bills like that then you absolutely should have pet insurance.

Could you find out prices at some local vets for various procedures etc to see if it's worth insuring first? I used to always insure my dog but our new vet is extremely reasonably priced that I no longer insure as it's just cheaper to pay if any treatment is needed.

It's a gamble but I stopped the insurance for my old dogs years ago when they were 7 and premiums went up so much after a claim. I saved the same amount for them every month and now 6 years later they have good savings. They've never needed to use the money and all trips to vet would just have been the excess anyway. Now at nearly 13 and 14 I won't be doing anything invasive with them.if they get ill. I spend money on trying to find supplements for their old legs and to make them comfy. It could have gone wrong though.
My puppy is insured with bought by many who paid fast and were good when she needed emergency vet
I wouldn't risk being without it again though.