ASPCA | Pet Insurance Review

I have been with ASPCA for over a year, I have three pets on the plan.My cat had developed hyperthiroidism in Nov. of 2007 and was put on medication which is not hepling,he had to be on it for three months to regulate the thiroid before surgery could be done.The policy renewed in Feb. when I read my new ploicy on the certificate it had a clause that read any illness that manifests in one 12 month period and is not cured and treatnent free for 180 days will be excluded from coverage in the subsequent 12 month period.but there was a asterik at the end of that statement (*) at the bottom of the plan it says does not apply to our plan.I called to verify this and was put on hold for 10 minutes and told to turn to page 9 under section Limit Of liability which basically said the same thing that was on the front page.I was told that they did not know why the asterik had that clause and that there were two supervisers looking into IT ,but that I am still not covered,I am thinking of contacting a lawer in this matter,I sent several E-mails and they never reply.I asked if my pet had an accident 12/31 and had to go back for several appointments and my policy renewed Jan.1 if that would be covered and was told no.What kind of rip off company are they.I chose them because they are the aspca,and thought that they would be more reputable because of there name .Boy was I wrong.I am going to look for another company.

This plan seems like a great plan at first, I chose the Advantage plan, which covers spay and neuter which can be so expensive and you get routine coverage as well as accident. However, once I submitted my claim for reimbursement, I was surprised at how LOW my reimbursement was compaired to my vet bill!! Granted, I took into a account the deductable, however they only reimbursed me for 80% of what THEY consider to be "reasonable costs" (basically they take the average of what the vets are charging in your area, and that includes cheaper places like shelters and such, so if you choose to go to a more expensive vet, that is a disadvantage for you). Also, I'm unhappy with the customer service, which once I got through was good, but anytime I chose the option to check up on my claim, it took literally 30 min. before someone would answer! Then when I chose the option to open a new plan, my wait time was (conveniently) only 5 min.I wouldn't recommend this insurance, too many loop holes.

They use their own fee schedule, so even if they pay 80% for a particular malady, it is 80% of what they say is reasonable for your area. It is not based on your actual charges. I found this misleading.

I'm going to take part of the responsibility here in that we were naive to the number of pet insurance companies out there and just went with ASCPA because of who they were affiliated with. Big mistake. We signed up for our insurance in June. We went with the second highest coverage (Premier) for our lab mix. New Years Eve he slipped in the yard, tore his ACL and needed surgery. We knew we were going to have to eat part of the cost, but were thankful we were going to get at least part of it back. We went ahead with the surgery and submitted our claim. Whoops! ACL surgery is not covered for the first 12 months...and since you renew every year, you have to basically pony up for an entire year before they will cover something major. Many of the other pet insurance companies begin ACL coverage after just six months, which we would have been well inside of with another outfit. This is also much more expensive than other companies I have since compared it with. I plan to cancel my coverage at the end of the month after I've had his check-up and teeth cleaned...which they are supposed to pay for, so my $500 worth of premiums won't be completely wasted.

I really hate this company. They have some crazy "pre-existing" condition policies that get sprung on you when you least expect (or can afford) it... basically, they claim that ANY condition that has EVER been filed (and how many times might you have a puppy/dog with a stomach ache in its lifetime, for example...), it will NEVER be covered again after the calendar year that you first file it. An ongoing condition (for instance, my dog has epilepsy, which controlled by medication, but she is supposed to get her blood levels monitored every year or so) - that is first diagnosed in December of 2007 will suddenly become A PRE-EXISTING condition as of Jan 1 2008, and nothing - medication, vet checks, etc - will EVER be covered for that illness ever again. This has cost me a lot of money. I have wanted to cancel for years, but keep it because my dog is a senior and i expect there will be more illness to come, but I HATE this company. they truly make up their own rules to suit their bottom line - they are not a god company.