As I have already reiterated several times (and I will not tire of doing it) it is important to read the contract of the policy you are stipulating carefully and if possible have compared at least a couple of quotes before choosing.
The main aspects to be observed to evaluate the insurance proposal are:
- Deductible and overdraft
- Ceilings
- Covers
If you have a car and consequently insurance on it, then you know very well what is meant by deductible and ceilings. Refreshing the concept doesn’t hurt though.
The DEDUCTIBLE and the OVERDRAFT are a part of the damage which remains, in any case, the responsibility of the insured. One of the other applies depending on the sum of the compensation.
Let’s take some examples: if the dog health insurance has a deductible of 500 euros and an overdraft of 10% and the veterinary expense for the accident for Boby is 300 euros, the insurance will not reimburse you for anything. Those 300 euros are all at your expense. If Boby gets hurt and has to be operated on and the veterinarian’s expenses amount to 1200 euros, the deductible is always 500 while the overdraft would be 120; in this case, the insurance will reimburse you 700 euros (1200-500 deductible). If the overdraft was higher than the deductible then you would have been reimbursed the total less the overdraft.
The MAXIMUM is the maximum coverage of the insurance.
By COVERAGE I mean what the health insurance policy you are analyzing offers.
I give some examples. Some companies intervene only in the event of an accident and/or illness that require surgery, others also intervene in the absence of intervention.
Then some policies cover the period of hospitalization in the clinic only for several days established by the contract, while others also cover the rehabilitation costs resulting from the accident/illness.
Much attention should also be paid to the age clause. Many health insurances do not allow you to take out policies for dogs that have reached a certain age (usually 8 years old) and logically you can well understand why. However, some policies impose a coverage limit, a sort of expiration upon reaching the predetermined age.
In these cases, the dog’s health insurance “expires” at the age of eight or tenth. I find this behavior very dishonest because just when my dog may need medical attention the most, the insurance I paid for ten years is no longer valid.
It is important to note that almost all insurances accept and consequently
cover only dogs that are regularly equipped with microchips and reported to the competent canine registry and it is required that they are up to date with vaccination cycles.
We will explore this aspect better later by comparing various proposals. Meanwhile, I repeat: we always read contracts well!
