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Health Insurance

Moonstone

Warren Scout
My bunnies have been insured with Pet Plan all the time I've had them, I have a mini lop who is nearly six years old and a Netherland/mini lop cross who is 7.

When my mini lop had stasis recently it cost £82.75, £80 of which was excess so paid by me.

So please can you remind me why I have insurance? It's costing £47 a month, £567 a year.

So far they have barely been ill and only have required one hospital stay, they eat only healthy food, get plenty of exercise and I do a lot to avoid infection.

I'm guessing the answer is as they get older they will have more problems and could cost me thousands? Is there anyone here who has put the money into a bunny savings account for their rainy days instead?
 
really it comes down to personal preference. insurance is a gamble and may be wasted money if your pets never get sick.

but factors to consider are how easily you are able to drop hundreds, thousands, on vet bills, and how quickly you can recover from them. its all well and good having a 2k vet fee fund - but if it would take you a year to recover from blowing all of that, its not suitable. you need to be able to recover from vet fees fast, within a couple months, or on going illnesses. some people have credit cards for this reason also

for instance while I have quite a comfortable savings account - if an animal got sick I would not be able to recover from that quickly, *especially* a long on going illness. Luna, over about 6 months, cost me 1.7k. majority I was able to claim back via insurance, but with paying my £65 excess a few times over, alongside things I couldn't claim back (nebuliser, medication costs, transport fees), I lost around £400 or so. but had I paid the full 1.7k, I wouldn't be able to recover from that very fast at all, honestly. its taken me about 2 months to recover the £400 loss almost, never mind full 1.7k

ultimately its personal. I know I wouldn't be able to recover from large vet fees quickly due to low income (however my pets are well cared for), so I opt for insurance. granted, its been mostly a waste for Ori as he's never gotten sick. but I'd rather pay £180 a year for nothing than end up in difficulty due to my financial constraints
 
I agree with BC, although having said that, I do some wonder why I pay out such a large amount on Treacle, and have never claimed a penny in all that time, but then that's got to be a good thing. I guess its peace of mind if anything major happened.
 
Yea I agree with the above, I don't have insurance for my lot, but my healthy bun hurt herself binkying and needed leg surgery last year which cost 1500£ iirc [emoji38] like out of nowhere, I've got two who have ongoing illnesses which cost a lot.. But things can happen out of nowhere.

I've always wondered if I should get insurance, but then never gone for it. Like Codie says, can you drop thousands out of nowhere if the worst was to happen? If yes then maybe don't bother with insurance. If that's something you couldn't do then I'd probably stick with the insurance. It's all a bit of a gamble. I know if **** hits the fan here everyone's covered, so I haven't bothered. But insurance companies make money hoping you'll never claim.

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We have it for ours and its been a lifesaver really.

We dont struggle per say but can't afford the bills our lot have sent our way. This last 12 months Rodney has had all of his £2k cover allowance on stasis alone.

But then we've always seemed to have ill buns.

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I can’t survive without pet insurance, as others have said. It’s great to hear that you’ve had two very healthy bunnies, but we haven’t.

We didn’t have our first rescue bunny insured, and he sadly died in 6 months and cost 2500 in pet bills, which we weren’t prepared for. We had the money, but it was a struggle

I’ve since insured my older bunny with Agria, and my younger bunny with Pet Plan. Pet plan have been a life saver as we maxed out her allowance for 2k due to a complex eye issue.

I wouldn’t be without insurance.
 
Never had insurance for my pets as I have so many. Do have some savings just in case.
 
Never had insurance for my pets as I have so many. Do have some savings just in case.

Me too. I use the credit card and sort it out later. If things are really desperate, PTS is always an option - affordable, relieves suffering, etc - but I've never come to that yet.

Not having insurance often makes for more interesting conversations with vets, when you are weighing up whether to do various tests, scans, etc - and if it would actually make any difference to the treatment or outcome. I think there may only have been 2 occasions in the last 40ish years that insurance may have provided 'better' treatment, but not a better outcome, unfortunately. There are many times when the animal would have been put through procedure that didn't really provide additional benefits, but I am persistent and have a decent knowledge of biology, so could make a more informed decision in consultation with my vet. I also trust my vet/s and they know me well - which counts for an awful lot. I am also prepared to do a lot of home nursing / treatments / dressings, etc if needed. Not everyone is in the position to be able to do things this way - which is where insurance comes in.

Some types of animals are also much more prone to some very expensive issues - eg dog breeds prone to needing replacement hip joint. There's no way I could cover that.
 
Thank you, some really thoughtful replies there.

I realise I have been lucky so far with their health, I'm sorry you've not all had as much luck.

I think I'm going to keep the insurance for now... the other half has lost his job so thing are about to get rocky.

If you stop insurance then start again.... does that put the premiums up considering one is six years old and the other seven?

ps I learnt how to do signatures!
 
Thank you, some really thoughtful replies there.

I realise I have been lucky so far with their health, I'm sorry you've not all had as much luck.

I think I'm going to keep the insurance for now... the other half has lost his job so thing are about to get rocky.

If you stop insurance then start again.... does that put the premiums up considering one is six years old and the other seven?

ps I learnt how to do signatures!

you probably would struggle to find insurance again - most companies won't ensure rabbits over 4-5 years old. I believe agira do an age amnesty sometime around Autumn, but that's about it. most won't insure older rabbits. so if you stop their insurance, you need to really consider you may be unable to get it again.

premiums going up I can't really comment tbh as yeah .. finding insurance for an older rabbit may prove difficult at best tbh! also need to consider previous illnesses may not be covered under a new policy
 
As BinkyCodie's reply- you will struggle to insure older bunnies but if you can, it most likely won't be as expensive as PetPlan with the really high excesses over age 7. NCI insure up to 7 years but I don't trust them to pay out and they seem to be an insurer that hikes up the premiums if they do pay. For that reason, I would see them as only worth having until one major claim then cancelling on renewal (depending on what illness the claim was for).

I am really impressed with Agria so far, so swapping when there is an age amnesty is something I would consider if I had oldies with PetPlan.
 
If you do swap or cancel and try to reinsure you would struggle to get anything covered as anything noted on their history regardless of whether it was a claim will be classed as pre-existing so won't be covered. I have one rabbit insured as hand reared her so have her full history, my older pair are rescues and I didn't insure due to pre existing. The one who is insured I did get fed up with her premiums going up when I'd never used it, but luckily I didn't cancel as she got poorly the end of January and is nearly at her £2k limit in less than a month! I will go over her insurance now.
 
Oh, I didn't see the posts over the page! Thank you Liz47 and Bunny Buddy too. I will look into Agria.
 
Agria is good and has more money to spend per condition, it’s around 2500. It might be worth phoning them if you want to move but I personally wouldn’t cancel insurance unless you are a little bit minted
 
I dont have insurance on my two however each month I put an amount in a savings account. I started it years ago when we had Jess (dog), she died at 17 having needed very little. I carried it on with the bunnies - they have spent a sizeable chunk of it over the years but I have been able to move 3 lots into ISA's
 
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