CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Health => Insurance => Topic started by: hamfam on June 26, 2006, 05:52:55 PM
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Alright I know I should have asked first BEFORE signing up but I didn't
Anyone else signed up with Healthy Pets and had to claim, it seems too good to be true when compared to most others - £5000 vet fees , ongoing conditions with no time limit and up to £5000 per condition, no limit to the number of simultaneous ongoing conditions, plus all the other bits and bobs for a quarter of the price of petplan.
Did i miss something? I wont be too heartbroken if i screwed up as its not alot of money, but i would prefer to find out now rather than when i make a claim :huh:
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Here is the Healthy pet (http://www.healthy-pets.co.uk/) link i forgot to put in!
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Don't know about this company specificially but their insurance is underwritten by Axa, one of the "biggies" so nothing to worry about from that aspect ;)
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I had Jimmy insured with Healthy Pets - I'm afraid my experience wasn't very good. For a while he had stomach problems with numerous visits to the vet. When I put the claim in they refused to pay out, as each individual visit to the vet came under the excess - I had to get the vet to contact them to say all the visits were part of the same on-going problem. They still quibbled over every small thing and it took ages to sort out - I never got the full amount from them, I eventually got ground down by all the correspondence going backwards and forwards and just gave in to preserve my sanity. >:(
Hopefully my case was a one-off - but I didn't renew the policy and wouldn't use them again.
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I'm with healthy pets too. I have only made one claim and they paid up without querying anything! I had only paid about 2 instalments and then claimed over £80!
This was also for a tummy bug - as I was so worried about Ben I called the vet to meet me at the surgery at about midnight ................. they didn't query that at all ;)
I pay £5.10 per month for the gold cover.
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Max is with healthy pets so this is intresting, we havent claimed at all yet but his trip the the vet for his bad paws last week came just below the excess, he has another follow up appointment tuesday so i think i will be claiming for the two combined visits. Hopefuly they wll pay.....
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Oh, that seems really cheap. :o I just (Saturday) signed up for M&S insurance as I thought that was really reasonable compared to some. I wonder if it is too late to change it, it is actually almost half the price, not quite as good cover, but still pretty good foir the money.
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£5000 vet fees , ongoing conditions with no time limit and up to £5000 per condition, no limit to the number of simultaneous ongoing conditions, plus all the other bits and bobs for a quarter of the price of petplan.
The way I've read this is that once you have used up £5000 on one illness/condition, you would no longer be covered for that? If so, that's what happened with my SIL's springer,(don't know who he was insured with though).He developed arthritis fairly young,and his limit expired by the time he was about 8, so they had to fund that themselves and keep paying the premiums so he was covered for other things.
Personally, I prefer lifetime cover with annual limits (which is what I thought Petplan was), as opposed to a limit per condition - I'd be worried that one of mine could get a condition which needed ongoing treatment, and I wouldn't have thought that £5000 would last for many years (esp if it was something like arthritis or diabetes). We're with M&S (Boysie should be sponsored by them), and they have been brilliant. Maybe a bit more expensive but we're now excess free as well.
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I am in the middle of a claim with healthy pets insurance I hope it all goes smoothly I will let you know, I have to say I am a bit worried now as mine has been over numerous visits to the vets with rocky so I hope they dont quible about it.
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Yes I agree with Maria,that's how I read it too. I am also with M&S. lifetime cover £7000 a year and no excess. I think it's about £10 a month (have to check that) Only had it 4 months and made a claim after 2 months for a minor problem,only about £35 and they paid it all no problems .
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The way I've read this is that once you have used up £5000 on one illness/condition, you would no longer be covered for that? If so, that's what happened with my SIL's springer,(don't know who he was insured with though).He developed arthritis fairly young,and his limit expired by the time he was about 8, so they had to fund that themselves and keep paying the premiums so he was covered for other things.
Personally, I prefer lifetime cover with annual limits (which is what I thought Petplan was), as opposed to a limit per condition - I'd be worried that one of mine could get a condition which needed ongoing treatment, and I wouldn't have thought that £5000 would last for many years (esp if it was something like arthritis or diabetes). We're with M&S (Boysie should be sponsored by them), and they have been brilliant. Maybe a bit more expensive but we're now excess free as well.
I know what you mean and i did look at m&s but with them the limit is £7000 per year total cost if i remember correctly, so you would be in the same boat if heaven forbid your pet accumulated several conditions requiring treatment, that said i almost signed on the line with m&s then i came accross healthy pets and looking at the way premiums rise with pet age i figured that most long term illnesses seem to occur from 8-9 years, £5000 is above average for pet insurance from what i've seen but i have to say i have no idea of vetinary costs for major illnesses or how long this would last for arthritis or diabetes, I would not have thought that the drug bill would be that expensive? Pehaps someone could enlighten us?
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I am in the middle of a claim with healthy pets insurance I hope it all goes smoothly I will let you know, I have to say I am a bit worried now as mine has been over numerous visits to the vets with rocky so I hope they dont quible about it.
I would appreciate if you would let me know what happens to the claim, I'm not at all sure i have made the right decision but the cost is between 1/4 and 1/2 of the competitors so i figure i can change in 3 to 6 months if needed with no penalty the only problem being if Lucy were to get a long term illness within that time.
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I read M+S as being up to £7k per year per condition. So if diabetes AND Heart problems AND getting run over (dog forbid) you can claim up to £21k??
Bills are very easily run up at vets when anything serious is happening. I know I paid over £200 just for an ultrasound a few years back and if there had been any hope of treatment for Gunnar, i would have been looking at a bill for thousands. In Alfies first year I claimed back over £1k from M+S and that just for the things I could be bothered with claiming or were actually covered. Drugs for animal use are so much more expensive then the human equivilient. The drug companies put the mark up on them and then govt tax and duty on top of that.Vets do their best to sell them at cost. I remember there was a report on Countryfile last year where farmers were popping over to Eire to buy drugs as they were nearly half the price then in the uk.
The thing i do like about M+S is they actually do cover for castration, animal behaviourist etc as long as the vet has reccomended for behavioural problems. Paid out for Alfies 121 and castration no quibbles :)
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Interesting comments above will let you know how I get on as Snoopy is issured by Healthy Pets and we are just about to put a claim in for his problems over the past weeks, I know they have been really helpful over the phone and have not had any problems to date.
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The way I've read this is that once you have used up £5000 on one illness/condition, you would no longer be covered for that? If so, that's what happened with my SIL's springer,(don't know who he was insured with though).He developed arthritis fairly young,and his limit expired by the time he was about 8, so they had to fund that themselves and keep paying the premiums so he was covered for other things.
Personally, I prefer lifetime cover with annual limits (which is what I thought Petplan was), as opposed to a limit per condition - I'd be worried that one of mine could get a condition which needed ongoing treatment, and I wouldn't have thought that £5000 would last for many years (esp if it was something like arthritis or diabetes). We're with M&S (Boysie should be sponsored by them), and they have been brilliant. Maybe a bit more expensive but we're now excess free as well.
I know what you mean and i did look at m&s but with them the limit is £7000 per year total cost if i remember correctly, so you would be in the same boat if heaven forbid your pet accumulated several conditions requiring treatment, that said i almost signed on the line with m&s then i came accross healthy pets and looking at the way premiums rise with pet age i figured that most long term illnesses seem to occur from 8-9 years, £5000 is above average for pet insurance from what i've seen but i have to say i have no idea of vetinary costs for major illnesses or how long this would last for arthritis or diabetes, I would not have thought that the drug bill would be that expensive? Pehaps someone could enlighten us?
The M&S £7000 pa limit is still higher than £5000 pa (and they also have separate limits for behavioural, complimentary etc). The way M&S works is that you can claim up to their limits pa(for each type of claim- which most vets think is more than adequate). On renewal, prior years claims are not accumulated, because there is no limit per condition. And sadly conditions like arthritis / hip problems and diabetes can occur in younger dogs.
Like I said we chose this type of policy because of our SIL's experience, and luckily we did, because if we had gone for a limit per condition policy,Boysie would have been virtually up to that by now because of the claims we had for x-rays, hydrotherapy and the ongoing glucosamine for his back legs.
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I'm with M&S and because I live In London it's much more than if I didn't - it works out at roughly £209 annually or £17.50 a month. This figure is with no excess though, and I think it's nearly £7 per month cheaper if you don't live in London.
I went with M&S because it was recommended on here, but was a bit surprised it was so much more cos of where I lived.
Our vets are trained to sell Pet Plan that looks at specific London post codes, not just the general area. Goodness me, then did I think M&S was a bargain. For the platinum standard which provides up to £8000 cover per year (as opposed to M&S's £7000) but does have an excess where mine doesn't, it was FIFTY POUNDS SOMETHING A MONTH!!! They rather generously deduct £3 off if you insure an additional pet (i.e. dog 1 = £50 per month, dog 2 = £47).
The vet's assistant which goes through the insurance, said she had only been trained on Pet Plan therefore was only legally allowed to promote pet plan.
I told her I was actually planning on getting M&S, and she took her name badge off, put it in her pocket, and said 'as a pet owner I would highly recommend them.'
I think Axa is behind both M&S and Healthy Pets though.
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I'm with M&S and because I live In London it's much more than if I didn't - it works out at roughly £209 annually or £17.50 a month. This figure is with no excess though, and I think it's nearly £7 per month cheaper if you don't live in London.
I'm in Kent and it would be £14.39 with no excess or £13.85 with a £60 excess.
If Lucy was 8 yrs old it would be £29.73 a month with a £60 mandatory excess and a further liability for 15% of the total claim.
Healthy pets is £5.82 with £50 excess rising to £11.85 at age 10 with a £50 excess and no further liability.
The main difference seems to be that HP insure up to £5000 for each and every condition so each condition is covered for life or until the bill for that condition reaches £5000 whereas M&S insure up to £7000 per year total claims so each condition is covered provided the total for all claims in the year is less than £7000.
M&S has a £750 limit for complementry treatment (included in the £7000 limit) wereas HP does not differentiate between complimentry care and so the £5000 limit applies.
The big question is how much cover is actually required for chronic illness - i.e. diabetes or arthritus per year
Looking again at the figures i wonder if it might be better to go M&S excess free for the first 5 - 7 years then switch to HP?
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I'm with M&S and because I live In London it's much more than if I didn't - it works out at roughly £209 annually or £17.50 a month. This figure is with no excess though, and I think it's nearly £7 per month cheaper if you don't live in London.
I'm in Kent and it would be £14.39 with no excess or £13.85 with a £60 excess.
If Lucy was 8 yrs old it would be £29.73 a month with a £60 mandatory excess and a further liability for 15% of the total claim.
Healthy pets is £5.82 with £50 excess rising to £11.85 at age 10 with a £50 excess and no further liability.
The main difference seems to be that HP insure up to £5000 for each and every condition so each condition is covered for life or until the bill for that condition reaches £5000 whereas M&S insure up to £7000 per year total claims so each condition is covered provided the total for all claims in the year is less than £7000.
M&S has a £750 limit for complementry treatment (included in the £7000 limit) wereas HP does not differentiate between complimentry care and so the £5000 limit applies.
The big question is how much cover is actually required for chronic illness - i.e. diabetes or arthritus per year
Looking again at the figures i wonder if it might be better to go M&S excess free for the first 5 - 7 years then switch to HP?
But HP also has an annual limit of vets fees of £5000 regardless of the per condition limit? Which is £2000 less than M&S? The £750 complimentary meds for M&S is in addition to the £7000 limit, as is the £250 for behavourial etc
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Sorry Maria but i've just looked it up on the web.
All reasonable costs for
Treatment of Your Pet by a
Vet or Complementary
Treatment carried out under
their direction up to the
Maximum Benefit of £7,000
per Policy per Period of
Insurance, including:
1. Complementary Treatment
carried out by a Vet or carried
out by a member of a
professional organisation
under the direction of a Vet
up to the Maximum Benefit
of £750 per Policy per Period
of Insurance.
2. Costs of Treatment
goes on to cover the behavior cover etc , The £7000 is the max they will pay in a year and is inclusive of everything
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Sorry Maria but i've just looked it up on the web.
All reasonable costs for
Treatment of Your Pet by a
Vet or Complementary
Treatment carried out under
their direction up to the
Maximum Benefit of £7,000
per Policy per Period of
Insurance, including:
1. Complementary Treatment
carried out by a Vet or carried
out by a member of a
professional organisation
under the direction of a Vet
up to the Maximum Benefit
of £750 per Policy per Period
of Insurance.
2. Costs of Treatment
goes on to cover the behavior cover etc , The £7000 is the max they will pay in a year and is inclusive of everything
Yes you are right! (misread my policy- oops), but if you deduct the bits 'included', such as behavoural etc, this would still leave £5700 for other vets bills pa. The way I read the HP policy, is that you can only claim up to a max of £5000 pa in total, regardless of the per condition limit.
Anyway, as I said earlier, insurance is a personal choice - I'm happy with the policy I have (for reasons stated earlier), and you're happy with yours, so that's fine......
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Thats the whole point though Maria,
I'm not sure i have made the right decision, i was rather hoping that there would be lots of replies saying either HP were the best thing since sliced bread or avoid them at all costs then i would either rest easy or change to M&S in a couple of months time.
Failing that i was hoping that i might get a better feel for the likelyhood or cost of chronic illnesses in dogs and then make a judement based on that.
I'm not sold on HP by any means, i can see benifits in both policys i just need a bit more information to make my decision
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I'm not sure if I've got this right ::) as I'm not familiar with HP but what I've understood is that HP will cover for any condition up to £5000 for the entire life of the pet whereas M&S will cover for any condition up to £7000 per year.... I'm with M&S and I chose them because the prior year's claims are not accumulated so you have a clean sheet every year. Unfortunately some conditions can be very expensive to treat and although it's fairly rare, some dogs can develop them at a young age so if your 2 year old dog, say, were to develop a chronic life-long condition I'm sure it's more than possible that the vets bills could easily total more than £5000 by the time they were 10 or 12 years old...
I suppose it depends if you want to take a risk on your dog not developing any long-term illnesses at a young age, because of course if they did and you then decided you wanted to change your insurance because you were only covered for £5000 you would have problems with getting new insurance because they now have a pre-existing condition... It was too much of a chance for me so I went for M&S, I'd rather pay a bit more now just in case (although it's still only £11/month)...
I don't know if this will help, or if I've just confused you more! :P
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I think it's important to get it right first time, as who knows what could happen to your dog at any given time.
Once you've made a claim whoever it is with, that would still be considered a pre existing condition by the company you want to change to :huh:
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meant to add there is a period when you can change your mind about accepting HP's offer, not sure how long and I don't know when you did it? :huh:
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I dont know where you are but I was paying £25 to see the vet in London and maybe a course of antibiotics would be £15 or ear drops a couple of pound - always under the excess of pet plan and in this case HP. Now where I live seeing the vet is only £12 - brings the bills down even further so paying for ensurance with a big excess to me is a complete waste of money. M+S - no excess :)
The other thing i notice about the policy is they wont pay for behaviour therapy unless as a direct result of an injury or illness, nor any dietry foods after four weeks which if your dog gets colitus could work out very expensive.
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The most important thing is lifetime cover, which will carry on foir the life of the pet, rather than th 12 months some cover only.
In my experince, diabetes, arthritis, and allergies are probably the most common complaints that require long term care. Speical diets are extortionate, so are some arthritis treatmnts, even glucosamine is quite expensive to buy _ I just bought OH some and it was £15 for 2 weeks supply.
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We are with more than,£ 11.99 a month and £ 10.99 for Lucky that is £ 6000 a year per condition. with the amout of Mishaps Ally has had and the Anal gland operation for Lucky we have had" more than" our moneys worth, no problems either and they now pay the vets direct
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Well i looked at More Than and it is much the same as HP but for me it is alot more expensive, there is a £7000 limit per claim which is £2000 more than HP but the excess is much higher as is the premium
More Than insurance for Lucy would be £13.69 for £7000 per illness with £70 excess on claims below £500 and 15% for claims above £500
For a 9 yr old cocker the premium is £32.29 with £95 excess on claims below £500 and 20% for claims above £500.
Healthy pets is £5.82 with £50 excess rising to £11.85 at age 10 with a £50 excess and no further liability.
The premiums for pet insurance vary depending on the postcode so you may find 'more than' more economic depending where you live
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I was with E & L not great i have to say and quite expensive compared to the quote i have had from M & S which i have now taken up thanks to the positive comments on here. I must admit i got quite a shock i thought they would be really steep but they are much cheaper than i thought. Thanks guys you have saved me money and given my boys much better cover.
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I think on balance of the responses so far i will be changing policys to M&S in a few months in order to benefit from the no excess, i'm not convinced that the £5000 per condition cover of healthy pets is insufficient to cover most if not all aillments but given all the recent posts regarding grass seeds, runny poos, burnt paws etc found elswere on this site ,most of which will be less than the Healthy pets £50 excess, i can see i would be better off after 2 claims with the M&S no excess policy.
I think there is a breakpoint in terms of dog age when the Health Pets plan is distinctly superior to the M&S plan, certainly when the dog reaches 8 years with M&S the £60 excess becomes mandatory and could go as high as £1050 if the claim was for £7000 (15% of 7000), on top of this the premiums are 3x healthy pets.