Vet bills: How do you pay for them?

Hi everyone,

So this isn't exactly a "corgi health" question, but as I'm starting to seriously look into getting a puppy, one of my major concerns is of course, healthcare. As we all know, vet bills can be insanely expensive, and I don't make that much money that I can just pay it all so easily. So I was wondering what all of you guys do about vet bills?

Of course, there's pet insurance. For those of you that purchase that, how much coverage is enough? Do you get the full coverage, with all the preventive care and stuff covered? Or just the accidental/disease coverage? Are most insurance companies pretty good about following up on claims? I've read that with pet insurance, you have to pay up front first, and then they reimburse you. That would really suck if you had to pay for a very expensive procedure and they take forever to reimburse...

I've also heard some people say it's better to just put what you'd pay monthly into a savings account. But then I'm worried about what to do if something happened to my puppy. Obviously if I just started putting money into the account, I won't have much saved up yet. On the other hand, it would kinda be nice to have that money just in case, instead of having to pay for the insurance if my puppy ends up being super healthy and doesn't need much besides the basic vet care...

Then there's CareCredit... But then in the end I'd still have to pay for all of it. So I don't know if it would be good to rely solely on that.

Anyway, so please tell me what all of you do about paying for healthcare. Thank you!!

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Permalink Reply by Shou on March 21, 2012 at 4:53am

Thank you for your comment, Emily. I'm glad to find out the opinion of someone who works at a vet. I'll probably stick to savings account and care credit then.

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Permalink Reply by Gabi Walker on March 21, 2012 at 10:15am

Gotta agree. After reading this I asked around at work and the Dr. told me he never really believed insurance was worth the costs. I could tell you that literally none of our customers have insurance, if I'd have to estimate it would probably be less than 10%.

I also googled around and I found this Consumer Reports article on pet insurance.

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Permalink Reply by Shou on March 23, 2012 at 3:50am

Thank you very much, Gabi. I guess what you guys have said, and the article just confirms it... I think I'm just used to the idea of insurance being needed because having people health insurance is usually a good thing. But I'll definitely stick to the savings account idea. And since I plan on getting my puppy from a good breeder, and taking good care of him, hopefully he'll never need much more than the routine stuff. :]

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Permalink Reply by leslie on March 20, 2012 at 12:31pm

my yohan has epilipsy so i have him with bansfield wich is inside petsmart.its approx 300 a year bt they let u pay 23 a month but like 90 start up fee. office free and shots free but med is not free.lol but iam always in there cz he likes to eat junk from outide so iam always there cz he tendd to get parasites and thats not covered just the test.iam pretty poor bt i always pray and god always make do for me.just watch ur baby and make sure he dosnt get into garbage and u will be fine.<3 u and god bless. ur gona have a healthy baby who is never gona get sick ever. :-*

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Permalink Reply by Shou on March 21, 2012 at 4:58am

Thank you for your comment, Leslie. Poor Yohan! Corgis really do like to eat everything huh? Haha. I'm glad that things always somehow work out though. Yohan's lucky that he has you to look after him! I have heard about the insurance that they have at petsmart and also petco I think has a different one. I'll look into it... but after hearing everyone's opinion I think I might just stick to the savings account and hope also that my corgi will end up being a strong healthy puppy. And of course I will do everything I can to try and keep him healthy too. Thanks again. :]