Consider buying pet health insurance for your four-legged friend. There are several options available and there are a lot of details to sift through. While it’s important to ensure that your pet can get medical care when it’s needed most, choosing insurance requires understanding what’s actually covered. And as you delve deeper into the intricacies, you often discover mountains of Pet Health Insurance Exclusions
Determining which pet health insurance provider is best for you and your pet can depend entirely on what services they exclude from their policy.
Below is a list of typical and unusual Pet Health Insurance Exclusions that can be a deciding factor in your search for your ideal pet health care option.
What are The Pet Health Insurance Exclusions?
Only a portion of the image is shown by the exclusivity of each sort of coverage. Make sure you identify and carefully read the list of limitations before signing the contract when contemplating pet insurance because exclusions or limits sometimes outweigh covered conditions. The “What’s Not Covered” section of the insurance provider’s website is usually where exclusions may be located.
This section frequently functions more as a summary than a comprehensive list. For instance, the “What’s Not Covered” page of the Nationwide Pet Insurance website’s “Plan restrictions” section has the following text: See the whole list of exclusions here, or see your policy’s “What We Do Not Cover: Exclusions” section and Declarations Page.
The link will lead you to a much more thorough list of all policy limitations if you click on it. That is the specific information you require.
Common Pet Health Insurance Exclusions
Here are some of the most common exclusions of pet insurance policies.
Waiting time
There is usually a waiting period (10 to 30 days) before coverage begins with most pet insurance policies. Most plans stipulate that any condition that first begins to appear during the waiting period will also not be covered after the waiting period has passed. This in addition to no coverage happens in the meantime.
pre-existing medical conditions
Most of the time, previous medical problems were the reason for your disqualification. Exclusions may apply to anything that happened in your pet’s medical past before coverage began. Also, this is true if you cancel one policy and purchase another.
Conceive and/or give birth
You may be responsible for the costs if your dog or cat becomes pregnant. While some insurance plans offer hardship coverage, most exclude pregnancy entirely.
Dead pet or its theft
Regular pet insurance usually doesn’t cover the theft or death of a pet. Zoos and owners of rare or expensive animals may have specialized plans for life and theft.
Chronic, Hereditary, and Pre-Existing Conditions
Pre-existing conditions are not covered by pet health insurance companies, but what those businesses consider to be pre-existing conditions might affect whether your pet is eligible for the coverage. A pre-existing condition is one that exists before to the start of the policy or prior to the conclusion of the waiting period, which is a predetermined period of time following the policy’s start during which most expenses are not covered. Allergies, cancer, and even an injury to one side of the body that prevents subsequent coverage of the same damage on the opposite side, as in the case of cruciate ligament issues, are examples of these illnesses.
Hereditary and congenital illnesses are inherited and frequently not covered. To supplement a primary insurance, several companies do offer additional coverage for these kinds of diseases. If your pet is purebred, you might want to find out what breed-specific problems he could be susceptible to and inquire about coverage with the pet health insurance provider.
Chronic problems, sometimes known as incurable conditions, are illnesses and diseases that affect your pet permanently, such as allergies or diabetes. Typically, pet health insurance coverage do not cover illnesses that require ongoing, lifelong treatment.
Diseases that can be prevented
If your pet has a preventable illness—like canine flu, kennel cough, giardia, or parvovirus—and you don’t get vaccinated against it, treatment may not be covered.
Exclude varieties
Because of their propensity for specific medical disorders like diabetes or ligament injuries, some breeds of dogs and cats are prohibited from insurance or are only available at a premium.
Excluding age
Insurance companies often refuse to provide coverage for dogs that are older or younger. For example, depending on the type and breed, most insurers will not cover pets under eight weeks of age or will introduce new policies for pets 14 and older. Even if larger dogs are covered, costs will likely increase significantly as the animal ages.
Elective proceedings
Most elective surgeries are not covered by insurance. Anal gland surgery and removal, tail clipping, ear clipping, nail clipping, cat nail clipping and claw removal are some examples.
Unusual service or veterinarian
Naturally, practices or activities that are not normally associated with veterinary care or those that would not be considered standard care are not included. This includes meal preparation, dietary supplements, boarding, commuting, grooming, and bathing. The cost of complying with any government law or regulation, behavioral training, experimental treatment, and other services will not be reimbursed.
How to Handle Pet Health Insurance Exclusions
Always read the fine print, especially the exclusions, before agreeing to an insurance coverage; you don’t want to be caught off guard. Due to the wide variety of plans, exclusions may vary. Some policies are limited to emergency care, therefore they won’t cover the majority of scenarios outside of emergencies.
