i'm on the border between 4 and 5 stars. By the time i finish writing this i'll probably decide. i first got this health insurance in the early 90s, around 1993 because it was the first year i had my cat and i saw an ad for pet health insurance in the LA Times Sunday magazine for it and liked the idea. i don't know how many changes in the company there were over those years, there were some name changes. i don't remember the premium, it didn't bother me. i first used it when my cat was getting older, she was about 15 when she was diagnosed with hyperthyroid. She was successfully treated with a medication that she took the rest of her life. She lived to be 20.
I got my dog in early 2006, signed him up with the insurance when he was 5 months old, there was a 30 day waiting period before it went into effect. Because of a mistaken serious diagnosis by an inexperienced ER vet, my dog started out with a permanently excluded pre-existing condition and it was hard to get that cleared up but eventually it did get cleared up and the exclusion was removed. That is important because it was for my puppy's heart and the most important reason for getting the insurance for him was that his breed, cavalier king charles, has a high incidence of mitral valve disease at some point in their lives, i really needed insurance in case he got it, and he was pretty certain to get it, it varies how old they are when they get it, he didn't need treatment until he was almost 13, so he never cost the insurance company much before that. He was extremely healthy, still is, so that although he went into heart failure last year and there have been a lot of cardiologist appointments and procedures, he's better than most dogs who have MVD at his age. He has not been to his regular vet in just under a year, and before that, he hadn't been to the regular vet in 3 years, and hardly ever before that. He hasn't been terribly expensive for the insurance company, but definitely it's on the gradual increase. His prognosis is that he's not going to live very long, not possible to say, but i think under a year from what i read.
i always liked the insurance, for my dog i had the Quick Care Gold Triple Coverage Plan, the premium was pretty high, went up steeply toward the end when the new underwriter took over. Then they got rid of the plan altogether.
Over the years i had overall great customer support on the phone. Many reviews say that their emails went unanswered. i wouldn't even bother with email, they're available on the phone and easy to reach, i did find pressing extension #4 got smarter reps than the one specific to why i was calling (#4 is for general customer service questions or something like that). i have felt personally cared about which was shown in various ways. No claim has ever been denied, no part of a claim has been denied. If i want email documentation of a phone call, i ask them to send me one, summarizing what was discussed.
The change to the new underwriter was traumatic and painful, i'm paying a lot more now, but still really glad to have it, i struggled with which plan to choose, they would give me deadlines to let them know by and i wouldn't be able to decide, all bad choices in terms of affordability and no way his only illness would be covered by anyone else. if they were going to cancel somebody, i gave them reason to cancel me. when i finally did make my choice, i was past the ultimate deadline and very worried about that, a representative followed up on it personally with his supervisor, took my number to call me back because i was supposed to be canceled and documented that my policy was renewed in email. i know when they made this change, the CS reps listened to a lot of pain and grief and anger expressed by customers, it wasn't in their power, that was clear enough but in my case they did a good job of communicating sympathy.
My dog was already diagnosed with mitral valve disease and was having periodic cardio evaluations during the years before the new underwriter (Praetorian?) took over, and the prognosis was well known for mitral valve disease, especially for his breed, most of them die from it. When i first got my dog i called them and asked about it and was told yes, we cover that. That has turned out to be true.
When i gave them reason to cancel me, they didn't. Since then, their new online claims thing started and i do love that, though it's had glitches but i appreciate that those are being fixed, only about one left now. Processing is lightening fast, my last claim, earlier this month was paid one week after i filed it, payment sent electronically to my bank account. This reduces the stress of having a sick baby, appreciated. 5 stars. read more
