#firstworldproblems

[tim]

Folks with animals: thoughts on pet health insurance? I've heard conflicting things ("you must get it" from some people, "it works better to set aside the same amount of money in a savings account" from others).

In particular, it would be cool to hear from people who either had insurance and then had their animal have an expensive medical problem, or had the same thing happen without insurance.

I figure if I adopt an animal, it's my responsibility to take care of it (given what the power balance is in that situation), and not spending a couple thousand dollars in an emergency situation means having more money left to donate to causes that help people.

Comments

[alexbayleaf]

This. If you could, in theory, afford to cover catastrophic medical expenses out your savings, then overall you will spend less money (probabilistically speaking) by not buying insurance. This is the theory I use when it comes to eg. insuring my cellphone -- if I lost it, I *could* replace it out of pocket, so it is cheaper to do that once every however often than to be paying an intermediary organisation who make money out of it.