The math of insurance

A single emergency could easily cost over $7,000, especially if overnight hospital stays are involved. Insurance isn't really for the day-to-day stuff, it's for the REALLY expensive stuff that you can't predict - bloat, impaction from swallowing a foreign object, injury from an accident or dog attack, diagnostics and treatment for an unexpected illness, etc. When you buy insurance, you honestly hope you never have to use it, but it's there for those times when life throws you a curveball. It's also cheaper to start insurance when your dog is young and healthy and has no pre-existing conditions than it is to buy it later in life, especially when the insurance won't cover any ongoing problems. Premiums will go up over time, but they won't be as high as it would be to buy an insurance plan for a 7+ year old dog.

Not buying insurance is also valid. Everyone has to do what they feel is best for their dog and their circumstances - though I do suggest putting aside some money each month into a "dog emergency fund" for those unexpected events if you don't go for insurance. I have one dog insured (the younger one) and one uninsured, partially because the older dog moved with me to Norway, and - due to his age and our financial situation at the time - we decided an emergency fund was more reasonable for him. We didn't insure him before the move, because we knew it was unlikely that we'd use it on a (at the time) young, healthy dog before we left the country, because we wouldn't be able to transfer his coverage to a Norwegian company, and because we had the luxury of having both a small bit of savings and family that would help out if the worst happened.

We have used that emergency fund quite a lot as he's gotten older. I wouldn't be surprised if we were up around $7,000 between treating his musculoskeletal pain and chronic warts, and because of that we have bought a plan with his vet (it's not really insurance, just a package our vet offers for clients with dogs with higher care needs) that gets us some discounts, vaccines, and a free consult every year, since it's become inevitable that he'll be in at least a couple times a year for various things. He's almost 11, and despite having some medical needs that require management, he's in generally great shape and I expect (and hope) for him to be around a few more years! Yes, we've dropped money on keeping him happy and comfortable, but we definitely don't regret it. The emergency fund has worked for him and us, but I'm also very glad that if and when we face this as our younger dog ages, we'll be able to get many of the expenses reimbursed.

So that's my perspective from doing it both ways, and I hope it helps with understanding the difference between going for insurance vs. paying from your own savings.

What DaySleepers said. I have no insurance on two older cats. One got sick and needed acute care.. and two followup appointments. $900 just like that. Those two cats have a $$ limit on their lives. If they suddenly have an emergency and need the emergency clinic (typically $1000-$1500 to walk through the door) I will opt to euthanize. No diagnostics.

The older dog has insurance. Coverage is not so great.. but would allow me to take him to the E Vet if needed. He is 6 years old. By 8 years old I will probably cancel his insurance due to the premium increase as he ages. We "will see." Maybe cancel it when he is 9... It reaches a point (for me) when I stop "doing all we can do" to an old(er) pet. This is a decision personal to me. Others will do surgery on an older dog that I never would.

The puppy and the kitten have are covered by a different carrier. Again, we will see. This company claims not to raise rates as the animal ages. They DO raise premiums but they say premium increases are more of an across the board increase.

With the shortage of Veterinarians and (worse) the tremendous cost of Emergency/24 hour Veterinary Clinics I opted for insurance.

There was a recent story a public figure posted about one of the Emergency Vet clinics where they brought in a dog in seizure. They ended up with a $15,000 bill and the dog did not make it. If they had insured the dog (age 6 as I recall) the insurance would have covered 90% of that bill. This e clinic requires payment based on estimated costs before treatment.

Just more to consider.

That's a good point too, about what is and isn't worth doing medically for our older dogs. In our case, Sam's medical needs aren't cheap when you look at them all together, but they've also been spread out which allows us to more easily afford treatment. And nothing he needs is super invasive or demands a long recovery time - the most serious has been removing problematic warts a couple times, which did require anesthesia but was extremely minor, superficial surgery that he's healed quickly from. We will probably soon hit the point where we decide the risks of putting him under aren't worth the rewards, and then stick to managing any issues the best we can until the point where he no longer has a good quality of life. And we may well have made different choices if he were a breed that didn't routinely live into their teens.

For the kinds of chronic-but-very-manageable issues he is dealing with, sometimes I wonder if we should've gotten him insured when he was younger, even if we can manage the expenses without. But there are absolutely some medical issues we would not treat at his age, regardless of whether we had insurance or not (amputation and cancer treatment come to mind), and much of the time it's impossible to guess what you'll be dealing with in old age when a dog's young. Especially a dog with an unknown pedigree, like my Sam. Everyone has to make the best choice for them, their finances, and their individual animal.

As others have said, it's scary how quickly one health issue, accident or genetic condition, can become thousands of dollars in vet bills. I mean, I spent almost $800 just for preventative and senior care for my dog the last time we visited the vet...and the visit before that was to have a lump checked out which ended up being around $300 if I remember correctly....$150 for the visit and another $150 for the needle aspiration. Could have been more, I just don't remember, but it was below my $500 deductible so I didn't file an insurance claim. Most insurances don't cover preventative care, but that's non-emergency care...imagine how expensive emergency care is! My in-laws recently had to take their dog into the vet for simple stitches and an overnight stay because of a dog fight, and that cost them just under $1,000.

Everyone has to make their own decisions, but to me $7,200 spread out over the life of my dog is better than having to dish that out all at once because the statistics were not in my favor. Granted, I live in the country, my dog is off leash about 98% of the time out here, he has run into wild animals, he competes in dog sports, and he's a rescue of pretty much unknown origins. Perhaps his likelihood of having an expensive medical bill is greater.

I would just suggest looking into the medical issues your breed is more likely to experience. If your breed is prone to something like, say, cancer, that can quite quickly be an enormous medical bill. But yes, you do you, but have a pretty good idea of the vet costs in your area.