wanting insurance for emergencies- experiences and suggestions?

Hi!

I normally post on another dog forum but figured this would be a good way to reach more people. In short, I have an almost 3 year old lab. We have had 3 emergency visits over his lifetime, all for being a typical lab and eating things he shouldn't have (I will elaborate if needed- basically twice let out of the crate by spacey roommates when I was not home/present and they left sugarfree gum out, and once when I was driving home from work with him in the car and stupidly set my lunchbag full of grapes in the footwell with him!)

I have managed so far with just paying the emergency fees, but after today (second silly gum incident, completely different roommate) I am really thinking it would be good to have an emergency-based insurance plan for events like this.

Does anyone know if he would have a sort of disqualification from accidents where he ate things, due to his (preexisting?) history, or would that not come into play since it's not really a diagnosed long term issue? Furthermore, does anyone have any thoughts on good insurance plans (I am in the US) for this type of thing, and/or experiences? I am thinking also about just applying for a Care Credit ahead of time but as a young adult who has held off on credit cards for this long, I really don't want one if there is a good alternative.

TL;DR: Good insurance for emergency situations where a lab eats bad things?

You'd probably have to get quotes from different companies for plans where his issues would be covered.

I just set aside $25 a month (so $300 a year) in an envelope for emergencies like catastrophic vet visits, car repairs, etc. plus have enough of a regular savings that is also available if it's something really major. So you might take their monthly rate quotes, add those up over a year and see how that compares to a typical visit for him eating non food items to figure out whether you'd just be better off saving that money for emergencies.

Also, there's nothing inherently wrong with credit cards as long as you use them intelligently. Maintaining a credit card with a low monthly balance ($10-$15) as a young adult is a fantastic way to build your credit score, and care credit is a great resource. I wish I'd gotten one earlier. Having a CC with a low limit is also great for making online purchases. I got one from my credit union specifically for online transactions after my ID was stolen online and someone got into my actual bank account using my debit card. Not cool. It's a lot easier to reverse credit card charges and your bills can still get paid on time if they don't get into your bank account.

Compare rates, and look at deductibles.

I currently pay 42 dollars a month or 504 a year.
A lot of it will go by the dogs age medical history and breed.

I believe it's better to have and not use than to find a 10 to 30 grand vet bill, blocking me from having a sound pet.

Labs are a large breed so there vet bills for anything past the norm can get pretty big.
I'm a giant breed person and know of many with some huge vet bill.

This recent post has a lot of good info

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275540

I used to advocate for just "set aside some money every month", but that was before I was actually working and really, practically realized how slowly that accumulates. And also how suddenly a big bill can come up.

Kili ran up close to $10 000 in her first 6 months with me... and I'm a VET so I don't even want to think what it would have cost if I wasn't. And that was for a non-emergency, correctable problem. I was a fresh graduate at the time and had only been working for about 6 months. No way I had that kind of money put aside (I still don't have that much in my savings and I'm close to 3 years in the workforce). Pet insurance covered 80% of all the bills I incurred for her.

I will never be without insurance on a new dog. Just my $0.02.

That was me too. Actually on that thread I linked earlier, this was what I said "I spent over $6k in vet bills over about a year & a half on her 2 TTA's plus rehab after both. I was always one of those "I'll just put away what I'd spend on insurance in an account each month".. even if I was putting away $100/month, that's only $1200/year, not even close to covering her surgeries, etc."

So yeah. Great idea to set money aside, but in a true emergency that will require surgery, or long term care, $50-100 a month isn't going to touch what your bill will be.

Thank you everyone for your responses! This post was initially caught up in moderation and I forgot it existed since it didn't get posted right away. Just remembered as I was coming back from the vet with my other dog (routine vax).

I had started to look into companies and had bookmarked a lot of things and typed some notes into computer. Apparently when it rains it pours and my computer died and lost everything yesterday, no backups like I thought I had.

Until it gets fixed and I can see things on a non-phone screen I'll have to hold off looking for insurance since it's just obnoxiously impossible to do serious internetting on an iPhone. Am wondering overall if I might have just hit a rough patch that should "let up"- I have a failed foster in addition to the lab, a little puppy mill thing that wasn't supposed to survive past 4 months and so I kept her. She is now 17 months (definitely an awesome thing!!!!) but obviously with every weird genetic issue known to man she can run up some vet bills. Between the two I spent $800 in 5 weeks (lab chipped tooth and needed extraction, both are due for yearly physical and bloodwork in same month, she needed her last booster vax which have to be spaced and given with Benadryl, and gum incident) and so my monthly "add money to this for vet costs" fund was wiped out in those 5 weeks. Thinking (hoping!) that it was a fluke and we should be good for a while.

That being said, if anyone knows of ANY insurance that will cover preexisting conditions let me know- never was able to find one and would jump on that chance if I could get it for the little one. She has VSD, collapsing trach, luxating patellas, and cranial sublux and has been in foster at my house since 2 weeks old so they're all obviously considered very pre existing. Will have a look at the other thread someone posted above!