Why You Don't Need Routine Care Coverage
Routine care includes all those treatments and vet visits that you do every year for the benefit of your cat or dog's health. Most routine care coverage includes:
- Annual checkups
- Vaccinations
- Deworming
- Prophylactic teeth cleaning
- Spaying & neutering
The question is, are these expenses something you would want pet insurance to cover? Our research finds pet parents on both sides of the fence.
Should You Get Routine Care Coverage?
Those that argue pet insurance should include routine care believe that it's not about money, it's about a hassle-free life. They don't want to worry about what is or is not covered, they just want to send in their veterinary bills. They pay a regular premium and, in exchange, everything is covered. What's not to like about that?
Then there are those that argue pet insurance should not cover routine care. They understand that insurance is for the unexpected things in life. These pet parents don't want pet insurance to pay for routine visits that are predictable because they know what insurance is for.
Ultimately when pet insurance includes routine care it ends up costing you more, in the form of higher premiums, than if you had just paid yourself. Why? Because insurance companies have overhead when processing a claim.
Just imagine how much more expensive car insurance would be if it included oil changes, tire rotations, and a checkup every 10,000 miles. The $300 to $400 that most of us pay for our car insurance every 6 months would probably double or triple. The same thing happens to pet insurance when it includes routine care.
Embrace strongly supports routine care for your pet, just not routine care coverage for pet insurance.
Pay A Dollar In, Get A Dollar Back
Some pet insurance companies have optional routine care plans that pay a fixed dollar amount toward a set basket of procedures and items. Think of it like a coupon book where you redeem the coupons for routine care. For example, your pet insurance pays up to $100 towards spaying or neutering surgery or $15 towards a vaccination.
If you add up all the coupons available, the possible payout is much more than what you pay for this plan so it might seem like a no-brainer to get it. But it is just like the coupon books you buy for the restaurants in your neighborhood – how often have you not even used enough coupons to pay for the price of the coupon book?
It turns out this is the case for routine veterinary costs too. You don't get every vaccination every year and you can only spay or neuter your pet once. In fact, insurance companies usually charge approximately the same amount pet parents gets out of this plan on average. In other words, you get out what you paid in.