Insurance choices

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MyWilson
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Insurance choices

Post by MyWilson »

Hi, I have a beautiful rescue cat who is about 14 years old. He is doing fine at the moment but he is FIV+ and has suffered cystitis in the past.
I've been looking at insurance options and have narrowed it down to two choices:

Insurer 1 - £19/month, lifetime cover, £4000 annual limit, does not cover any conditions related to FIV or cystitis.
Insurer 2 - £109/month, lifetime cover, £7000 limit for new conditions, also covers the pre-existing conditions (i.e. FIV and cystitis) but only £500 for the first year, then £1000 for second year (goes up to £7000 if no claims are made). There is also a 40% co-pay for anything related to FIV or cystitis and a 20% co-pay for new conditions.

I'm leaning towards to first as the second is so expensive but I'm worried about leaving him less protected. Does anyone know what kind of costs I might expect associated with FIV or cystitis and if it would be better to choose the second option?
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Mollycat
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Re: Insurance choices

Post by Mollycat »

I'm rather anti insurance, having worked in the insurance sector. The phrase "you get what you pay for" comes to mind, only with insurance unless you're extremely "fortunate" you actually get back half of what you pay for, it's what they work to. When premiums are £19 a month and they exclude anything cystitis or FIV related, you can be sure the only thing they might agree to pay for is an accident. On the other hand £109 a month, £1,300 per year, are you sure?

My dog recently ruptured his cruciate ligament, a common accident. the operation was £2500, the first xray was £500, the follow up was £300, the physio and rehab is nearly another £1000, plus £400 on various crates, beds, carry slings etc we've had to buy. We paid for it on a credit card. A friend of ours had the same problem with his dog, which was insured, and needs both knees operated on (ours was just the one). His insurance checked and despite CLD being a degenerative disease in his case, he had slipped in the mud 6 months prior and had been prescribed metacam. They refused to pay saying it was a pre-existing condition, because he had slipped in the mud, despite the insurance being already in force at the time.

You also need to think, for a 14 year old cat with some health issues, how much would you be prepared to put him through at what cost. If you would do everything possible regardless of cost and your cat is happy to have vet visits, exams, tests and treatments, fine, but what if he's not the sort to accept daily medication for life, or stresses out so much that he makes himself ill?

If you can afford £109 a month, put it in a savings account.
booktigger
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Re: Insurance choices

Post by booktigger »

I am normally quite pro insurance, but in your case I wouldn't go with either options - for £19 a month with exclusions they might try to get out of paying for anything, especially as FIV can affect so many things and for £109, you'd have to work out whether you'd spend that much in vet bills. My last cat's insurance went up to £50 a month and I cancelled in disgust, before realising he had cost £600 the year before (although when I looked into it, some wouldn't have been covered). Cystitis treatments can be very simple, you can get urinary food, treats, supplements to hopefully stop him having flare ups, I use something called Cystease, which is about £6 a month on Amazon (unless you are like me and buy enough to get 15% discount rather than 5% - look into Subscribe and Save, I also get the Beaphor urinary treats from there). I would either set up a savings account, or what I did when I cancelled Buster's insurance, I set up a direct debit to the vet for the amount of his old insurance premium, so there was something to cover his treatment. Obviously you'd get interest on a savings account.
MyWilson
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Re: Insurance choices

Post by MyWilson »

Thanks for your replies. I've also worked bit with insurance companies and that experience made me pretty sceptical about using insurance but I felt like maybe I was being irresponsible. I think the savings account idea is good. I'll probably also take out a mid-level policy in case something unrelated to FIV or cystitis comes up. I've heard good things about Morethan and they said their policy would be to ask the vet if it is directly related to the pre-existing condition rather than automatically exclude lots of things like others do. He has urinary food now and cystease but thanks for the tip about the Beaphar treats.
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