ASPCA | Pet Insurance Review

We enrolled our 6 year old cat George in the pet health insurance plan. He was doing well but we had had such major expenses with his sister Gracie (unfortunately we had not enrolled them when we got them) that we knew we might need help in the future. George developed some gastrointestinal problems and it has been such a blessing to have the coverage. We were so pleased that when we adopted our rescue dog Toby we immediately enrolled him, too.

I have a 7 mo old yellow lab she got really sick just before thanksgiving. I had her originaly at Mass Vet Referal Hosp, in Woburn Ma, then I had her to my vet 4 times over the next 10 days running test and whatever. All together my bills totaled almost 1500.00 after submitting all the claims I paid I recieved checks totaling 760.00.The Ins. Co says on their Web site "#1 Does the Company pay based on your vet bills? Find out how your pet insurance reimbursements will be determined.Some companies pay a percentage of your veterinary bills,while others pay only a fixed amount based on a benefit schedule. We pay 80% of allowable covered veterinary charges,BECAUSE WE BELIEVE YOU SHOULD BE REIMBUURSED BASED ON YOUR ACTUAL VETERINARY BILLS". Well guess what, thats not how they pay they take the AVERAGE VET bill from the area I was told "we take all the claims such as an office visit and determine what the average cost in the area is". They have an average for everything, well isn't that a schedule, if you have a list of how much you payout isn't that a benefit schedule? I think all the ticked off clients should get together and sue them on the grounds of false advertising.

I asked all kinds of question due to I had experience with my other cat(pass away)at 22yrs old. What I went through money wise I took out insurance on my cats. 2 cats are under VPI (which I love but premium go up every year, by age of cat) So with ASPCA I thought I would be covered and when I took my cat in they denied the bill. They get into the program and then when you need it they say it is not covered. WHAT A RIPOFF COMPANY - SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED. I am paying outrages premium a month and I am on disablity.

Back in the Fall of 2009 my cat Maggie was passing blood in her urine. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with a bladder stone which required surgery. I am so thankful I had pet insurance because the total bill came to $1,800 dollars. The insurance paid almost $1,200. I certainly can recommend having it.

My shorthair orange tabby Earl has had a very bad year with a series of illness - vomiting, urinary tract infection, bladder stones, and a malignant tumor in an adrenal gland. The ASPCA plan has paid something on each claim (so far) with explanations after a careful review of the bills I sent. Having this insurance really helped defray the expense of treatment and allowed me to have definitive tests done to help alter his diet and to reveal the tumor in the adrenal gland which was recently removed. Earl seems to be doing fine at this time.