Pet insurance vs health care plan for cats

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mrgsm021

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#304050 31-Mar-2023 15:22

Hi guys,

Looking at pet insurance for our two female cats we adopted 2 years ago.

A friend suggested Best for Pet health care plan which she said is different to pet insurance

Wondering what everyones' experiences were with both and what the main difference are please?

duckDecoy

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#3057201 31-Mar-2023 16:15

We use Pet Cover (was Pet Plan) for our cat. Works out to $37/month currently, but it does go up each year.

We had no issues with them for claims, and one was $2000 so we're well ahead so far. You will need to get your cats checkups as per their schedule, so if that's not something you regularly do you'll need to factor that into your budget.

Senecio

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#3057207 31-Mar-2023 16:38

Typically insurance would cover you for large unexpected expenses (operations, injuries, dental work etc..) and a health care plan will cover the routine costs of owning and maintaining the health of your pet (routine vet checks, vaccinations, preventative care).

One is not a substitute for the other. In my view you are going to pay for the health care one way or another. Either upfront through a health care plan or as you go for each visit to the vet. Up to you how you want to cover those costs. Pet insurance is one of those things that you hope you will never need, but when you do need it you will be glad you opted for it.

vexxxboy

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#3057224 31-Mar-2023 16:59

AA has a pretty good and straight forward pet insurance. You pick an amount per year, say $5,000 that you are covered for, it doesnt matter what it is and a excess amount and you can add care plans to it.

https://www.aa.co.nz/insurance/pet-insurance/cat-insurance/

Common sense is not as common as you think.

gehenna

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#3057268 31-Mar-2023 19:05

We use Pet-n-sur. Very lucky we did it, as both our dogs are walking CGA clauses.

mrgsm021

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#3057556 1-Apr-2023 15:06

Thanks guys for the replies and feedback.

As Senecio mentioned one is not a substitute for the other, however there are overlaps on entitlements for both such as vet consultation. I guess need to weight up what's essential/important for our cats against nice to haves.

Our cats are indoor only so less likely to have accidents or cause damage to other peoples' properties.

We've only taken them to see vets for their initial check up, annual vaccines, so maybe 4 or 5 vet visits so far.

They appear to be healthy and haven't gotten sick.

The AA pet insurance sounds interesting, so may investigate it further.