Health insurance for dogs: how does it work?

In a dog's life, accidents can happen at any time and health problems appear unexpectedly.

In order to anticipate and be able to cope with your dog's needs or with the unpleasant surprises when these happen, health insurance for dogs is the ideal option to protect owners.

What is health insurance for dogs?

In case of illness or accident, health insurance can cover the costs of consultations, examinations and necessary treatments for your dog.

As with human medicine, veterinary medicine is making great strides in enabling dogs to live longer and healthier lives. However, veterinary medicine is often very expensive.

Animal health insurance therefore makes it possible to include in a budget a set fee and thus, being able to benefit from the best care for your dog in case of need, but without worrying about expenses.

Why health insurance for dogs?

Insuring family members, cars, homes and possessions is normal for most people.

Veterinarians are increasingly advising health insurance for pets (dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.).

Veterinary care being more and more sophisticated and therefore more expensive, it is easy, throughout the life of your dog, to spend large sums of money to cover health expenses or even just to keep up to date with the various vaccines, deworming, etc.

A health insurance policy for a dog will allow the owner to provide his dog with all the necessary care while respecting the family budget.

How to use health insurance?

Health insurance is very easy to use. The first thing to do is to choose a plan according to the needs of the dog and the owner.

Then, when the dog requires veterinary intervention, the dog owner will ask the veterinarian to complete a care form or a form provided by the insurance company.

Once the form is completed, it is returned to the insurer (often accompanied by the invoice). The insurance company will then reimburse the homeowner according to the percentages set out in the contract.

What factors should be taken into account?

Age and health are important factors in assessing a dog's insurance record.

It's best to insure your dog early so that you can benefit from a reasonable cost and be sure you can insure him.

A dog that is too old can sometimes be refused by the insurer because of the high risks related to potential diseases caused by aging.

By insuring the dog at a very young age, it is often possible to benefit from a good insurance at a reasonable price for the entire life of the dog. The principle is more or less the same as for individual insurance.

There is usually a waiting period in order to confirm the health of the dog to the insurer, before confirming insurance on the animal.

The dog must be in good health at the time the policy is taken out by his owner. Time limits as well as requirements may vary from one insurance company to another.

Prior to the insurer's assumption of responsibility for illness, surgery, accidents or other conditions, the insurer may require certain checks on the dog's health before confirming insurance.

Which dog insurance to choose?

It is important to determine in advance what type of expenses should be covered by the dog's health insurance. If the canine owner's budget allows him to absorb some of the costs, it is possible to lower the cost of the insurance, but it is important to carefully target what coverage is necessary for the animal as well as for the owner's budget.

Generally speaking, some important points are often targeted in canine health insurance.

• Choice of veterinarian at all times
• Coverage of emergency consultations costs for accidents or illnesses
• Coverage of physical or behavioural treatment costs
• Coverage of preventive consultations and vaccination costs

There are different packages that may include or exclude prevention. The choice is always the owner's as prices can vary greatly from one package to another.

The advantage of prevention packages is the reimbursement of the costs of deworming, vaccinations, anti-parasites, canine hygiene products, etc.

Conclusion

The important thing is to target the real needs in terms of insurance. Insurance should help the homeowner cover potential costs while staying within budget.

It is therefore important to ensure that the cost of insurance isn't too high and detrimental to the owner's budget. The real needs must be determined and a sensible budget must be drawn up.