The Walters Agency Podcast

When Vet Bills Bite: The Truth About Pet Insurance

• Timothy Walters • Episode 14

Share episode

What Is Pet Insurance And What Does It Cover?

Ever found yourself facing a staggering vet bill and wondering if there's a better way? That's exactly what we explore in this candid conversation about pet insurance – the increasingly popular option for protecting your furry family members without emptying your savings account.

Timothy Walters brings his insurance expertise to bear on this emotional topic, acknowledging how our relationship with pets has fundamentally evolved. "I've noticed like people kind of look at pets as members of the actual human family," he observes, explaining how this shift has created a need for financial solutions when pets face health challenges. With veterinary costs rising dramatically (just like human healthcare), many pet owners find themselves making heart-wrenching decisions based on finances rather than what's best for their beloved companions.

The episode dives into practical considerations that every pet owner should understand before purchasing coverage. We explore how age and breed affect premiums, what questions to ask when comparing policies, and why both pet owners and veterinarians benefit from proper insurance coverage. As Walters points out, "I think animals are more likely to get veterinary care for people who have that insurance policy in place." Beyond the financial protection, there's the invaluable peace of mind knowing you won't face impossible choices if your pet needs expensive treatment.

Whether you're considering pet insurance for the first time or wondering if your current policy provides adequate protection, this episode offers straightforward advice without the insurance jargon. Listen now and discover how to make informed decisions about protecting those special four-legged members of your family. Ready to explore your options? Call or text us for a free consultation about finding the right coverage for your pets and your budget.

To learn more about The Walters Agency visit:
https://www.brightway.com/agencies/tn/knoxville/0237/team
The Walters Agency
7009 Asheville Hwy
Knoxville, TN 37924
423-417-2070

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Walters Agency podcast, where insurance meets peace of mind. Hosted by licensed insurance agent and owner, timothy Walters, we're here to help families, homeowners and small business owners throughout East Tennessee protect what matters most Our mission creating win-win-win solutions for insurance. Let's dive in.

Speaker 2:

Pet insurance is gaining popularity, but what does it actually cover and is it worth it? Timothy Walters explains the ins and outs of protecting your furry family members, from routine care to emergency vet bills. Welcome back everybody. Skip Monty here, co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with Tim Walters, licensed insurance agent and owner of the Walters Agency. Tim, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Going well, skip, ready to talk about these furious furry friends of ours?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, I've got I used to have four dogs and two cats and I'm down to one cat and one dog but I don't have pet insurance. I've got my son has a very expensive dog and he has pet insurance and it kind of saved his bacon one time. So I've been thinking about it. So I wanted to ask you what is the deal with with pet insurance, and is it real protection for our furry friends? Or tell us what you think.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, no, skip, yeah, no. I think pet insurance is kind of a. I like it. I like the fact that we have this thing available for people because, you know, I grew up with pets cats, I grew up with cats, cats, I grew up with cats. I love cats. Dogs are fine, but they require too much love and attention, I think, and I have a stonier heart, right, so I jive well with cats, you know. But when I grew up, if your pet got sick, if your pet got injured, some people would take it to the vet, but a lot of times you know that was it, you just put them down. It's sad but that's the way it is.

Speaker 3:

But more and more I've noticed like people kind of look at pets as members of the actual human family. Right, I hear the term pet parent, right, you know. Or fur baby, you know. I mean again, I don't think a lot of people really actually look at, you know, these animals exactly as human. But there's there's a great deal of emotional attachment, there's a great deal of love and, like I said, I have a little cat named peaches little orange torpedo got a lot of nicknames for and I love her and I would fight a grizzly bear, you know. But if it was a fire, it was a choice between saving her or one of my family members. I'm sorry, peaches, I'm going to have to save my family first, but some people might not feel it, some people might go for the cat.

Speaker 3:

You know, in those situations, veterinary services, just like human, you know human medical services, just like everything, everything has gotten more expensive. Vets go to school for a very long time to to to get the education they need to do what they do. It's expensive. The cost to set up a veterinary clinic is not, is not cheap. Paying, you know, the staff you need to run a vet clinic is not cheap. Paying the staff you need to run a vet clinic is not cheap. And so, yes, vets have to charge what seems like a lot of money, even for, like, maybe basic services, like stuff that used to be, you know, in the 80s and 90s.

Speaker 3:

Maybe you take your cat or dog in for shots. You know it costs. You know whatever it costs, we never got our cats. It cost back then, but I'm sure it was less expensive than it is today. But again, just like with insurance, just like with everything, you know the cost has gone up and that might be prohibitive for a lot of people, like even if you love your dog, even if you love your cat, even if you love whatever animal it is that you've got and it's sick or it's been injured and you know that you can't afford to get it fixed at the veterinarian, then unfortunately, again that leaves the other option, which a lot of people don't want to do, understandably.

Speaker 3:

So having that reassurance of knowing hey look, I've got this pet insurance policy. I know it covers X, y and Z up to amount A, amount B, amount C Just knowing that and knowing kind of what your actual out-of-pocket costs for a vet visit or emergency visit or something like that, I think for the person, for the pet owner, would maybe make them more willing to take their animal to the vet because they're not going to face the full, you know the full cost of that out-of-pocket expense. You know by taking them to the vet. So I think animals are more likely to get veterinary care for people who have that, that insurance policy in place.

Speaker 3:

And also, I think, of the vets I haven't talked to a huge number of them, but I've talked to a few vets about this and the ones that I've spoken to. They kind of like the fact that when people have pet insurance, because then they're pretty much assured that they're going to get some kind of compensation for their services, because sometimes people will bring animals, animals in you may be in an emergency situation or something like that. The vet does their thing, because typically people become veterinarians because they love animals and then that person can't pay, you know, maybe another full price, maybe none of it. So I think veterinarians a lot of times get stuck, you know, not getting full compensation for their services. So I think that's one of the reasons, like a lot of veterinarians do, like it when people have pet insurance, because then there's kind of that guaranteed pay for them, which is fair, I think. So, yeah, I like pet insurance, I think it's a good thing.

Speaker 2:

And this might be getting a little deeper than we need to, but are there breed-specific considerations or exclusions that pet owners should be aware of? Like my big old, 12 years old, if I decided to take out an insurance policy, they may say, oh no, too old, you know. I mean, is there considerations like that?

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, it's a thing of pet insurance is very similar to, you know, human health insurance. Okay, the older the pet is, the more expensive it's going to be. There may be, there may be exclusions for animals at a certain age. I've actually never seen that, but most of the pet quotes that I've run have been for, you know, animals that were not terribly old. You know, I guess I should say you know, and again, that's you know the way animals age is a little different from humans, of course, but so I've never seen like an animal rejected due to age. But I'm not saying that's not possible, it could be possible. There's probably some kind of limitation on. I doubt a pet insurance company is going to insure a 20-year-old dog or a 20-year-old cat because they're likely going to be having a lot of medical issues, all that kind of stuff. But maybe there is. I mean, if you have a 20-year-old cat or dog, give me a call, I'll run a call for you. Well, what about?

Speaker 2:

like I know certain breeds, like you know, I don't know if a pit bull would be more likely to get into a fight with another dog and get bitten or I never. Jurgis Hefford's have hip dysplasia. Is that something?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean I'm sure there's some kind of, because they do ask every company that I use for pet insurance. They do ask questions about the breed, especially for dogs, because I think there's more dog breeds, but the German Shepherd thing, the hip dysplasia is a thing, but I never, I've never seen like any, any breeds, just flat out excluded. I'm sure there are different ratings for different breeds of dogs, just because again you're looking at different, different average life spans, different. Probably, I'm sure, because again insurance companies they crunch numbers, that's that's what they do. They look at the data for like what kind of dog? Like this, this breed of dog is more likely to have hip dysplasia. This breed of dog tends to live 15 or 20 years, whereas this breed of dog tends to, you know, get older at 10.

Speaker 3:

Right, and they're going to have more medical issues the older they get. I'm sure all that's you know right into the calculations and my best advice is just not worry about it. Just be honest. When you're getting these quotes done, say, yeah, I've got a pit bull, I've got a German Shepherd, I've got he's this old, it's never been sick. Or maybe, yeah, he got hit by a car last year and we had to take it to the vet. It costs $5,000 to save the animal and get it put back together. If we don't want to do that again, just be honest.

Speaker 3:

And again, the guys running your insurance quotes, they're not out to get you, they're not out to stick it to you, they're just. They're just getting the information they need to run honest numbers and see if the product would be a good fit for you. If you, if you're willing to, again, it's going to cost you nothing's for free. But you know you love your animal, you want to try to have some insurance for the animal to take care of potential issues. Running the quote is free. I don't know any agent that charges just to run quotes. So you know you really do lose nothing but time. And then if the price works for you, then hey, great, get the policy if it's a little more expensive than you can afford. Well, I mean, just pretend you're in the 80s and 90s.

Speaker 2:

Take the alternative.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but yeah again, it is very similar to health insurance as far as the information they're going to consider. It's going to be age it's going to be. Is there chronic illness already? Have there been previous incidents of illness or injury? That kind of stuff, injury, you know that kind of stuff. But if you have a pet that's relatively young, that's in good condition, you know, typically the insurance quotes work, especially for basic policies. They're not onerously expensive. Now, some of them you know, some of the higher end ones, of course can be a little bit more expensive because they cover more risks.

Speaker 2:

Which makes sense. So what should pet owners any advice before we go? What should we look for when comparing providers or reading the fine print? Any other advice?

Speaker 3:

I would just. I would just, when you're, when you're talking to them, to the agent, you know whoever you're getting the quotes from or from the company. If you're getting a quote directly from a company, just review the what what is generally covered like. Make sure that you're not under a misapprehension of what is covered, because there's always going to be limitations for any insurance policy. There's going to be things that are not covered. So if you're really concerned about some specific possibilities, just ask the questions. And if your agent is not sure like if somebody asked me a question I'm not sure about, I was like well, you know what I'm not really sure about that, let me call the insurance company, the carrier, underwriters, and ask about that. You know that's what you do. If you don't know something, you ask somebody who hopefully does know. But again, don't be afraid to ask questions. And if you're concerned about something very specific, ask the question.

Speaker 3:

But the language, you know it's insurance language, right? You know insurance language is kind of like lawyer language. You know a lot of people have trouble with it, but when you get down to it it is pretty straightforward with that insurance. You know it says you know this is covered, this is covered. This is covered, this isn't covered. You know, and this is, you know, is the co-insurance? Typically it's like a co-pay, so they'll cover 80% of the cost for certain types of events. It is fairly straightforward. I mean, a reasonably intelligent guy like me can probably muddle his way through it after spending a good chunk of his life in the business.

Speaker 3:

But, yeah, asking questions there. Yeah, no asking questions. There's nothing wrong with asking questions. I encourage it because the more you understand about your policy, the more you understand. Hey, maybe I should go ahead and deploy it. My dog got hit by a car. I know like 80% of that cost is going to be covered if I take him to the vet, so I can actually take him to the vet covered. If I take him to the vet, so I can actually take him to the vet instead of, you know, not taking him to the vet. You know, I mean it's, or you know, my dog got like my neighbor's dog, had for years issues with cancers on her skin and she's my buddy. I love that dog. She died not long ago. It was very sad.

Speaker 2:

But she's my buddy. I love that dog.

Speaker 3:

She died not long ago. I was very sad. I don't know they were taking care of her. She was going in very regularly to get these things removed. It cost a lot of money. If you get an insurance policy on a dog when she's young or he's young and then something like that happens, as long as the policy you've selected covers that kind of issue, then again you're not going to be covering the full cost of that out of pocket. Again you're more likely to take the animal in for treatment. Fortunately my neighbors weren't strapped for cash. They were able to pay for the dog's treatment, but it was expensive. I talked to them about it. It was a lot.

Speaker 2:

Surgery is very expensive actually with animals.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it is Because it's specialized, it's very special.

Speaker 2:

And very important Our pets are important to us and very good advice and, if I heard right, be sure you do your research again and ask questions of somebody who is knowledgeable and like Tim Walters.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, like I said, if I don't know, I'll find out. You know, and that's this is what that's what most agents I know do is like if somebody asks us a question and we don't actually know, or they, hey, hold on a second, let me make some calls and we'll get back to you, you know, and that's, I think that's reasonable too.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Very well, very helpful for us Pet lovers. Tim, thanks for walking us through the details and we'll catch you next time on the Walters agency podcast.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, All right man have a good one, you too.

Speaker 2:

All right man have a good one.

Speaker 3:

You too.

Speaker 1:

That's a wrap on this episode of the Walters Agency Podcast. Ready to find the right coverage for your home, business or family? Call or text 423-417-2070 for a free 20-minute consultation. Until next time, stay covered, stay protected and keep winning with the Walters Agency.