Pet insurance? What to know about keeping your dog or cat covered.
- - Pet insurance? What to know about keeping your dog or cat covered.
Terry Ward, Special to USA TODAYDecember 1, 2025 at 4:04 AM
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When you decide to become a pet owner, many factors come into play that can make your head spin with more than just puppy love.
What sort of food is best for your new pet? To crate or not to crate? Do you have time to do the training yourself or should you consider outsourcing the task?
One of the most important decisions you’ll make comes down to safeguarding your new pet’s health, now and for the hopefully many good years to come.
The topic of pet insurance is a conversation Ashley Beard, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and the co-owner of Sage Veterinary Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, says she has with pet owners early on.
“Every new puppy that walks through the door to our clinic, we encourage (owners) to get pet insurance,” she says, adding that it’s particularly important to have when it comes to unexpected emergencies and illnesses that can be very costly.
Surgical intervention for a pet can easily cost between $6,000 and $8,000, she says – and that’s before you factor in after care.
More: Why many Americans fear they can’t afford pets anymore
Having pet insurance can provide pet owners with peace of mind, says Monica Suarez, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in Tampa, Florida.
“For example, in emergency settings, I find that clients are able to be more clear-minded about making decisions about their pets’ care when they're not burdened with the possibility of a large debt,” she says.
Pet policies vary
Most pet insurance plans cover both dogs and cats, with hundreds of policies offering specific options for each. Usually pet owners will pay for vet services up front and get reimbursed later by their plan. The process for finding the right coverage can feel similar to shopping for your own health insurance, Beard says, and factors in coverage for care ranging from accidents and illness to routine checkups.
She points to the website Pawlicy.com as a good place to “cross-compare” the varying levels of coverage and deductibles that apply to different conditions.
What to know before buying pet insurance for your dog or cat.
Pre-existing conditions can also come into play when it comes to insuring your pet, she warns, and that’s all the more reason to get coverage while your pet is still young and healthy.
“It’s harder to get insurance for your senior pet who's diagnosed with a heart murmur, for example,’’ Beard says.
Suarez advises keeping in mind that certain breeds are more likely to have chronic and expensive medical conditions that require veterinary care, including French bulldogs, and some larger breeds of dogs such as mastiffs and Great Danes.
And while most veterinarians accept pets that are uninsured, a lack of coverage can limit how quickly they’re able to reach a diagnosis or intervene on an animal’s behalf when financial considerations hold up the care process, Beard says.
Pet insurance takes some of the decision-making pressure off pet owners – and that’s hard to put a price on, particularly when time is of the essence.
“For acute life threatening things, where you're literally making a decision, ‘Can I afford to pay my rent, or am I going to have to euthanize my pet?’ It's nice to be able to say, ‘Okay, I can put this on my credit card, and I'm going to get the payment back from my insurance,’” Beard says.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Should I get pet insurance? Why it brings peace of mind.
Source: “AOL Money”
