Tails of Truth: The Truth about Veterinary Medicine

Pet Insurance: Worth It or Waste of Money?

• Episode 12

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Summary 

In this episode of Tails of Truth, Dr. Angie and JoJo tackle the often confusing world of pet insurance — and they don’t always see eye to eye. Dr. Angie shares why she believes every pet owner should have insurance unless they have $10,000 ready to spend at any moment, while JoJo opens up about her skepticism around big insurance companies, hidden exclusions, and the extra burden on veterinary teams.

Despite being in different camps, they find common ground on what really matters: pets deserve access to care before money becomes a barrier. From personal stories to the fine print that can catch pet parents off guard, this honest conversation is a must-listen for anyone trying to decide if insurance is the right move for their family pets.

Key Takeaways

 ✅ Emergency vet bills can easily reach $10,000 or more — insurance helps if you don’t have liquid funds.
 ✅ Many policies exclude “pre-existing conditions,” so start early.
 ✅ Insurance is best for unexpected, big costs — not routine care.
 ✅ Some breeds (Labs, Frenchies) benefit more than others.
 ✅ The vet industry feels the strain of insurance paperwork.
 ✅ Care Credit and similar financing can be predatory.
 ✅ Insurance companies are for-profit — skepticism is fair.
 ✅ Always read the fine print!
 ✅ Choosing the right plan means knowing your pet’s risk level and your risk tolerance

 🎙️ Soundbites 

  • “If you don’t have $10,000 on hand, you need insurance.” — Dr. Angie
  • “Insurance is a gamble. It really is about your personality.” — Dr. Angie
  • “Care Credit is awful. It’s predatory.” — JoJo
  • “I just paid for that paperwork. I’ll never see that money again.” — Dr. Angie
  • “Insurance companies are designed to be profitable — that’s it.” - JoJo
  • “I just feel so skeptical about the whole move toward insurance in veterinary medicine.”  - JoJo


Please subscribe and review! xoxo Dr. Angie & JoJo


Dr. Angie (00:00)
Welcome back to Tails of Truth, where we tell the truth about veterinary medicine. I'm Dr. Angie and this is Jojo. And today we're going to be talking about pet insurance. The good, the bad, the ugly. And this is all unscripted, so I have no idea what we're about to say.

JoJo (00:15)
So yeah, it'll fall

in one of those three categories, good, bad, ugly. ⁓ Dr. Angie, I tend to have like slightly, I wouldn't say that we are opposing positions on this, but we approach it differently. I think that's a fair way to say it, which will bring a really broad perspective to this conversation.

Dr. Angie (00:20)
Totally. So what's your take?

Probably.

Yes, so I'm a huge fan of insurance. I really encourage everyone to have insurance and unless you have like $10,000 liquid because I feel like everything costs $10,000 like

JoJo (00:53)
Yeah, I think

that's a fair number to throw out there.

Dr. Angie (00:55)
Yeah, if something happens, you know, if you're going to have your pet hospitalized for any amount of time, $10,000 surgery, $10,000. I used to feel like it was $5,000, but it's recently doubled to 10,000. So.

JoJo (01:10)
Yeah,

lactospirosis. Like, what kitty disease would be $10,000? Cats might get away a little less than that. I don't know, was trying to think about that.

Dr. Angie (01:18)
You think so? OK,

linear foreign body surgery. Your cat eats a string. $10,000 easily.

JoJo (01:23)
common, yeah

dental floss. Yeah the thing. Okay yeah so the $10,000 threshold if you have if you don't have access to $10,000 you should have pet insurance.

Dr. Angie (01:28)
Yeah. Totally.

then

you should, yes. That's my opinion. I've seen it help so many times. And it's such a bummer when your pet or somebody else's pet has a problem that's fixable and you don't have the money to fix it. It's the worst situation ever. And so for everybody.

JoJo (01:40)
Yes.

For everyone,

for everybody, for you, for your pet, for the staff that really wants to do this for your pet and can't do it for free.

Dr. Angie (02:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, just do it for your veterinarian and the staff. Because it's awful, like when we know that we can help and we understand not having the finances, just so you know, most veterinarians and veterinary professionals could not afford most of the treatments as well without insurance. And it's just, it's so awful and heartbreaking to see pets not getting the care that they need and could have if there were available funds.

JoJo (02:13)
Yeah.

Yes, and I don't know what it costs to have pet insurance from kitten stage, puppy stage, but it is a lot less expensive to buy in a policy at that point and hold that policy until end of life. Don't set it down and think you're gonna find a cheaper rate or you can pick it back up again.

Dr. Angie (02:49)
Mm-hmm.

Well, OK, I don't.

But I think that's not true, Jojo. think that you don't get to like, so I pay, one of my cats is slightly more expensive. It's like one's 23 and one's 24 a month. So I pay 50 bucks a month for them.

JoJo (03:02)
Really?

First of all, why is there a dollar differentiation between?

Dr. Angie (03:16)
Well, I imagine because Fritz is a boy cat that he's more likely to have a urinary blockage. And so the algorithm, yes, but people's health insurance, pet insurance, like a pet health insurance will, change. So they can raise your rate at any time. So it's not true that you ever get to lock in.

JoJo (03:24)
that's the differing factor. Yeah, okay.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, but you're definitely locking in at a lower rate. Like if you're, if I were to get a puppy today, I'm gonna make up numbers, I'm gonna pay $20 a month. That's not true, it's gonna be higher than that. But $20 a month. If I try to buy in a policy for my 10 year old dog at this point in time, I'm looking at hundreds.

Dr. Angie (03:43)
I don't know.

Mm-hmm.

It's going to be harder than that. Yeah.

Right, but your two year old dog that is one day going to be 10, when they're 10, it's still going to raise to that same rate. Like life insurance. Yeah, no, it just keeps getting more expensive.

JoJo (04:07)
Yeah. ⁓ like life insurance. Okay.

no, that's gonna make my position even more solid. ⁓

Dr. Angie (04:17)
I know, I know, I think I just lost some for my position,

unless you have $10,000 or more.

JoJo (04:23)
Right,

so that's what I start every conversation with. Like I always recognize when I'm talking about this topic, I am speaking from privilege. So that's the baseline, speaking from privilege because I can access $10,000 through a credit card. I don't know, a HELOC, something like there's.

Dr. Angie (04:37)
Mm-hmm.

JoJo (04:43)
Industry discounts. I also have that privilege of my surgery is not going to cost the same. No, they really aren't, but it makes a difference. Like I can, they'll let me take my pet home to nurse them sometimes rather than keep them in the hospital. So there's ways that I can cut costs. Gosh, I still am going to hold my position on this. I, I'm skeptical. Here's my skepticism. Insurance is there to,

Dr. Angie (04:47)
They're not that good though. They're not that good. No.

That's true. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

JoJo (05:11)
be profitable, insurance companies are designed to be profitable. So it's going to benefit some people, but not the majority of people are going to utilize the full benefit of having insurance. ⁓ When policies, well, maybe it should be, maybe the preference should be, okay, well, if you're going to have a Labrador or a Frenchie or, know.

Dr. Angie (05:23)
you

Well, we hope they don't all benefit from it.

JoJo (05:38)
A mailcat maybe. Maybe I can move into like if you have these, then you should have insurance. But like when companies like Nationwide Insurance can just go, oh, we're not being profitable, we're just going to randomly drop 100,000 FET policies. I feel skeptical. I feel skeptical when, like this morning.

Dr. Angie (05:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's pretty awful.

JoJo (06:06)
For this morning, I feel skeptical on the industry side, the veterinary industry side. This morning I had to send out claims for two insurance companies. Like, we don't, we don't profit from that. So if more people go to insurance and we're having to send more records and more disputes for insurance claims, we don't have the staff for that. Then we're have to hire staff for that. And our pricing's gonna have to go up.

Dr. Angie (06:33)
Right.

JoJo (06:34)
So it's like this circular, like, does it become more like human medicine where now even the bigger privilege is to be insured and those that are uninsured have less access to veterinary care? I don't know, I just feel so skeptical about the whole move toward insurance and veterinary medicine.

Dr. Angie (06:50)
Right.

I know. Well, and maybe some of it is a personality trait. I'm, despite some of my hobbies, I'm pretty risk averse. I don't like to take a lot of risk. so insurance feels comforting. Whether it is actually worth it for me. So I've been for two years, two and a half years now, I've had these kittens and I've been paying $50 a month. I've never had to use it.

but I also think I've never had to use it because I have it, which is a personality trait.

JoJo (07:29)
What would you call that personality trait?

Dr. Angie (07:33)
superstitious and risk averse.

JoJo (07:36)
Yeah, yeah, maybe that's true. We're opposite in that sense. I'm risk averse in other areas.

Dr. Angie (07:38)
I'm ⁓

Mm-hmm.

JoJo (07:44)
But when I'm putting money in every month and not seeing, I just am so skeptical. I'm so skeptical. I mean, I tell you, I tell this story is when we had a patient who wanted to go have a dentistry, who needed to go have a dentistry, that the insurance company denied paying for that dentistry because you had noted tartar and gingivitis on their medical exam notes. And that's a preexisting condition. And I'm like, my gosh, so we're gonna exclude.

Every dog and cat.

Dr. Angie (08:13)
Well, here's how I'm gonna defend that, not that I wanna start defending insurance companies, but they, you never get insurance to pay for dentistry. Like it's just not, you get insurance to pay for catastrophic stuff. It's not for wellness. Some policies claim they are, but they're not, they're not for that.

JoJo (08:27)
Mm-hmm.

No, by the time you

pay, you have to click the little box to have wellness included. And I just don't think you want them fine tooth combing. That's not really the language. Fine comb toothing, something of that sort. Yeah. Through all of your pet's history, to find the exclusion, that's where I just get this ick.

Dr. Angie (08:38)
It's so expensive.

Thank you.

Right, so if there were no pre-existing conditions, it would be worth it and insurance companies would go out of business.

JoJo (08:59)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Dr. Angie (09:05)
Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying. see what you're saying.

JoJo (09:09)
It's not, it's very gray. It's not, it's not black and white.

Dr. Angie (09:14)
Right, because if you do have a Frenchie, we're gonna just really dog on Frenchies. ⁓ for sure. Yeah, 100%. Any kind of bulldog is keeping the lights on. You're gonna pay more every month in your premium, but I wonder if it's worth it. I guess it is a gamble.

JoJo (09:18)
We love a Frenchie, but Frenchies keep us in business. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie (09:37)
That should be the title. That should be the conclusion. Insurance, it's a gamble. What's your personality type? ⁓

JoJo (09:43)
It is about

that. really is about, I mean, because there's truth to that. I feel that, you know, every time I take my position of like, yeah, I'm not doing insurance and like anti insurance. I will then speak to somebody who talks about how insurance allowed that, I mean, gives them that safety or allows them to say yes to procedures that they wouldn't be able to say yes to otherwise. And then I feel like, gosh, Jojo, you're such,

Dr. Angie (10:07)
Great.

JoJo (10:11)
Such an elitist, so stuck up about this insurance thing and not really walking in the shoes of how it is beneficial. But then on the other side of it, then the next sale here story of how insurance was such a sham and they spent so much money and then they didn't even cover whatever. So, I mean.

Dr. Angie (10:27)
I know, I talked to someone

today that their insurance covered like $8,000 worth of chemo.

JoJo (10:32)
Yeah, I was gonna say that if your pet gets cancer and...

Dr. Angie (10:36)
Right. But you can't ensure your golden retriever. Like I bet if you had a golden retriever who BTW have such higher rates of cancer, I bet I'm sure an insurance company would find a way to not cover that.

JoJo (10:52)
Yeah, and if they haven't, they will because the pet insurance industry is so new. So it's probably more of a data gathering industry right now, which is why Nationwide was like, oops, like we thought we were in the money making zone and we're not. They haven't figured it out yet.

Dr. Angie (11:02)
Right.

Yeah.

And they just dropped a bunch of people, right? Like thousands? 100,000. Okay, that's a lot.

JoJo (11:15)
100,000 policies. Which

if your pet was that 12 year old with pre-existing conditions, good luck getting another policy that is affordable.

Dr. Angie (11:28)
Right? That's

not gonna happen. Yeah, so they stranded 100,000 people. Yeah, insurance companies don't really care about you, do they? No matter what their marketing says.

JoJo (11:38)
No, I would think not. mean, I'm yet to meet on the human side. And I think fear wise, my fear comes from the industry side since we're talking about veterinary medicine, just industry wide. If we go to the way of having to bill insurance, I mean, I must have sent 25 pages of documents this morning to insurance companies. Yeah. Sorry to let you know that. didn't.

Dr. Angie (12:00)
Did you really?

Can I just say,

how much? I know.

JoJo (12:03)
Like you paid me to do that, but

you didn't get paid. And it's like going back to 2022. And I'm like, well, wait a minute.

Dr. Angie (12:12)
Well, just real quick, real quick here. Why aren't our clients sending them in? Why are you sending them in? Because they're

JoJo (12:14)
Yeah.

The insurance

company contacts us and CCs the client on it so the client knows that we're working on it. Isn't that interesting? Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie (12:26)
Oh no.

Right, okay. Yeah, so I just paid this morning for those insurance claims. that was just, I just paid for that and I'm never gonna see that money again.

JoJo (12:38)
Right, like eventually

if that becomes the norm, something's gonna have to shift in veterinary medicine. And I bet it is a norm at larger hospitals that they now, well, I mean, think of our boutique size and we have more and more clients that are using insurance.

Dr. Angie (12:41)
Right?

You think so?

Yeah, we're tiny.

Yeah. Okay. So as a veterinarian that wants to give life-saving care, I like it. As a business owner, not so much. Right?

JoJo (13:09)
Right? Like, I

just fed it to Dr. Angie live time, like, hey, this is what I did this morning. So you're seeing like real time processing. She's like, wait a minute. I mean, it doesn't happen often, but when it does happen, it's like, okay. And I just think that's where we're headed.

Dr. Angie (13:14)
I know. ⁓

Right.

Wait a minute.

Right. This is a different episode,

but it's like calling prescriptions into pharmacies. It's a different episode, but yes, it is. And overall it will drive prices of veterinary care up.

JoJo (13:33)
Yeah.

like,

just like, if you see what they charge insurance companies in human medicine, it's like astronomical, right? Like for a Tylenol in the hospital, the fee is whatever, I don't know, $100 for your Tylenol. And I wonder if that's where it's gonna go. So you're have these self pay options and we're not there yet, but so I just feel so skeptical and that's word I'm gonna land on. I feel skeptical, but I understand.

Dr. Angie (13:50)
Right.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

JoJo (14:08)
Yes, I understand if you say yes to insurance and I totally understand if you say no. So I have like zero judgment around either side. I'm just skeptical of the industry.

Dr. Angie (14:17)
Okay, so if you're a pet lover, cat lover, dog lover, and you're trying to decide if you should get pet insurance, what are you considering?

JoJo (14:26)
No. Yes. Access to, which there are, there are care credits. There's a new player in the field called Cherry Financing, which is a little bit, seems a little kinder than care credit.

Dr. Angie (14:27)
how much cash you have in the bank or how much credit you have access to that you want to pay 16 % on.

Care credit is awful. Now that I've been doing relief in like more of emergency settings, it's a pretty bad deal. It's predatory. That's exactly what it is. It's predatory. Sorry, care credit.

JoJo (14:51)
Predatory

Yeah, I mean, I looked at it again.

I looked at it again. I can appreciate. No, I cannot. I that's a lie. I can appreciate having accessibility to funds in an emergency, but it's not. It's 18 to 21 % interest on the low end, like up to 36 % interest if you don't pay it back in time. And some of those payments, like I just put in $10,000 this morning.

to pay back over 24 months. And the payments were like almost $1,000 a month, so who can do that and pay it off in time? So while it's a 0 % APR, it's collecting interest, kind of like student loans.

Dr. Angie (15:37)
Right. OK.

JoJo (15:38)
It's

not free. So anyhow, consider what kind of access, like to credit you have.

Dr. Angie (15:43)
Yeah.

And then I guess you have to consider, talk to a veterinarian about what kind of pet you have. Like if I had a cattle dog, I would not insure my cattle dog. If I had $10,000, I would not insure them for sure. Because they are so healthy. Yeah, they're like solid unless.

JoJo (16:00)
Now because they're just overall healthy. But if

you had a Labrador Retriever.

Dr. Angie (16:07)
yeah.

JoJo (16:08)
From like jump, I would insure a lab because that's what they're going to get in all the trouble.

Dr. Angie (16:13)
They do get in trouble. They're gonna, they're gonna tear their ACLs, CCLs.

JoJo (16:18)
I about that aspect, I was just thinking they're gonna eat your socks and panties.

Dr. Angie (16:21)
They're going to eat your socks and your panties and your bra or whatever, you know, chocolate tampons, whatever tennis balls. ⁓

JoJo (16:27)
balls, everything, something

they found on the counter.

Dr. Angie (16:30)
Yeah, rat poison, whatever, raisins. Yeah, then you definitely would. And then you would keep them insured so that when they get arthritis, it wasn't pre-existing. And then you would just hope your insurance company doesn't drop you. But I mean, so if you were me with my two cats, I mean, and I do have access to $10,000 worth of credit at a really, really bad rate, but.

JoJo (16:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie (16:54)
Would you insure Fritz and Fiona?

JoJo (16:57)
My my wrist level would not because they're mostly indoor I Mean they're indoor They have you as a guardian you have access to a lot of medical care Yeah, so I probably wouldn't well I didn't with my dogs and I know one of them Well, yeah, that was dumb. I do I make dumb choices sometimes I'm like, oh the $3,000 toe

Dr. Angie (17:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, they are indoor.

Wait, what was done?

JoJo (17:26)
that I had removed.

Dr. Angie (17:28)
By the board certified surgeon.

JoJo (17:30)
Uh huh, yeah,

that's a story for another day. I probably could have gotten that done for half the price. Yeah. But that's decisions people make when they're stressed.

Dr. Angie (17:34)
Yeah.

Probably, yeah. Well.

It is. It is the decisions they make.

JoJo (17:44)
So

I think we're in the boat of, I'm in the boat of.

Tread, tread lightly, know what you're stepping into but if you're get insurance hold it.

Dr. Angie (17:49)
Mm-hmm.

Hold it. Okay, so you would tell me right now, don't let it go. So I just calculated in their lifetime since I've had them, I've paid $1,200 into insurance.

JoJo (18:03)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie (18:04)
which feels bad now that I say it out loud. But okay, I was in California over the weekend and Fiona became terrified of my pet sitter for an unknown reason and Fiona was hiding and I was trying to figure out how to get Fiona into a carrier like she didn't eat for two days and into a carrier to take her to the emergency clinic. And so

JoJo (18:07)
Yeah, doing the, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie (18:30)
that visit alone, because of course I was going to have them do everything because I'm, you know, however many miles away California is freaking out about my kitty. So then I would, it would have just paid for itself at VEG. I mean, cause what do you think like getting blood work, x-rays, maybe some hospitalization like $2,000 easily, right?

JoJo (18:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

well you can't even go into some emergency room without them collecting $1,000 before they start treatment.

Dr. Angie (18:57)
Right. So then it would have paid for itself. But because I have the insurance, she came out and wasn't hiding anymore.

JoJo (19:02)
All

Yeah, I don't know like if we can ever know I mean my my dog had the rattlesnake bite and I always wonder what if insurance have covered that

Dr. Angie (19:16)
Yes. I would say overall, yes. Most likely.

JoJo (19:18)
Yeah.

right.

I know I'm just always afraid to like I missed the one exclusion or I missed the the small print that said oh yeah except for in cases of when you live in highly infested rattlesnake areas you know which would be like my home.

Dr. Angie (19:26)
Yeah.

Right.

Totally.

Well, we want to know if you think you should get pet insurance and if you do have pet insurance, wherever you're listening, drop in the comments, what pet insurance you have or insurance companies that you've been done dirty by. Cause I always like to, um, get that information. Like today I got a glowing review from pets best. So.

JoJo (20:07)
What's that? What's Pets Pest?

Dr. Angie (20:08)
don't know an insurance company. I've never heard of them. But now, now you have too. They paid for chemotherapy.

JoJo (20:11)
⁓ I haven't heard of that.

they're the ones who paid for it. Yeah, there are so many insurance companies out there. Definitely shop them.

Dr. Angie (20:17)
Yeah.

Ask around, you know what? I would have recommended Nationwide before because people have had such great luck with them.

JoJo (20:29)
Well, and I think nationwide comes through, like a lot of employers are offering pet insurance now as one of their benefits. And I think nationwide falls there. Costco has some kind of policy too for pet insurance. Yeah. So it's becoming a thing because there's so many that's like, I'm like, Ooh, what's going to happen?

Dr. Angie (20:48)
going to happen? Well we want to hear from you

And then maybe soon we will help you pick out your pet insurance. JoJo's not helping you with that, but maybe I will. I'm just kidding.

JoJo (20:57)
That's not true.

I'm so happy for people if they like their pet insurance. I'm just...

Leary, Leary.

Dr. Angie (21:04)
It's

totally skeptical. Okay. We will see you next time. Bye.

JoJo (21:09)
Okay, bye bye.