The below post is taken from the Video Blog, the Subject Matter Minute. You can view the episode on YouTube if you would like. Find it here: Episode #64 – Pet Insurance
If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive. (I would prefer you view it on YouTube, so I know how many people have watched)
You can also listen to an audio version.
Hello, and welcome to another Subject Matter Minute! I hope you enjoyed our beautiful fall weather before it turned on us. It was a great one.
It cracks my wife up, but I still run into you guys out there, you know, where you know me, but I don’t know you? She considers it fame… I keep reminding her that it’s Wyoming fame, so, a pretty small group. But… I was in Cheyenne a week or so ago and ran into a couple fabulous state employees. Wanted to give a shout out to Benoit, who I ran into on the WyDot campus and to Brenda from the Health department who I ran into at the Albany later in the day. Thanks for saying hello, it was great meeting you!
Ok… now it’s time for the serious part of the show. I’ve started getting horrified with my hairline and massive bald spot, and I’m starting to think that it may be time to take it all off…. Down to the skin. I’m curious what you guys think? It’s been a long time since I’ve asked for your input, and this is a very serious matter. A life change if you will. Lemme know what you think in the show comments!
Alright…. Let’s talk about the subject of the subject matter minute now. Today I’m going to talk about a new insurance offering by the state, Pet Insurance. (music)
Before I get started, I want to thank the crew at EGI for looking over my information and making sure I got it right. Like is so often the case, they are the subject matter experts for this episode.
Back when I had dogs, I’m not even sure pet insurance was a thing. And I’m sure I wouldn’t have even considered buying it. However, these days, I think it makes a lot of sense. Pet medical bills are often equal to human medical bills. We have some friends that are currently struggling with the concept of repairing an ACL on their dog for the small sum of $3000. Heck, 20 or so years ago, our dog suddenly lost the use of her back legs. She was paralyzed. So we took her down to Fort Collins and $1500 later, they said there was nothing they could do. She did slowly recover use and regained most of her ability, but that was $1500 back then.
So anyway… the state is now offering pet insurance through Metlife. This is a voluntary benefit, which means that we pay for it out of pocket. It’s also something that can not be payroll deducted. We just have to pay for it on our own…
I honestly have no idea if the rates are better than others out there. It’s a group plan, so they should be lower. But just so you know, I haven’t done any comparisons with individual plans out there. You might want to do so.
So, what do you get?
- Insurance plans that can cover the entire pet family with no breed exclusions
- Freedom to visit any U.S. veterinarian and reimbursement up to 90% of the cost of services
- Family plans covering multiple cats and dogs on one policy
- 24/7 access to Telehealth Services for immediate assistance
- Discounts up to 30% and additional offers on pet care, where available
- Optional Preventive Care coverage
- Coverage of previously covered pre-existing conditions when switching providers
We control the monthly cost by adjusting 3 components, the amount of coverage, the deductible and the reimbursement percentage. You can have coverage from $500 to unlimited, deductibles from $0 to $2500, and reimbursement percentages from 50% to 90%.
You can see here what’s covered:
The optional preventive care coverage includes things like flea and tick, spay and neuter, heartworm, behavioral training, teeth cleaning and more.
Of course there are some pre-existing conditions that they won’t cover. You can see what these sorts of things are on the Metlife website. The link is in the show notes. https://www.metlifepetinsurance.com/pre-existing-conditions/
Most of the information that you might need about this is linked in the show notes. There are also very clear instructions for how to get a quote and signup. The quote system allows you to add multiple pets, so it seems pretty handy.
We are currently pet free, but I think that if we were to get back into the pet life, we would definitely look into some insurance. Our paralyzed dog that I mentioned earlier had to use a doggy wheelchair for a while and I remember that being hundreds of dollars. The pet industry knows that pets are family and they certainly charge as if they are!
So check out the new coverage, it may be just what you need to reduce one area of financial stress. That’s it for this episode. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see you next time… with… or without…. hair.