Pet health insurance: honesty
is the best policy
When taking out
pet health
insurance, how much do you disclose?
Many pet health insurance providers make
statements like: “Failure to disclose material
facts could result in your policy being
invalidated.” By “material facts” they mean
anything that might affect whether they accepted
your application or not, or excluded certain
conditions.
For example, supposing a particular
pet health insurance policy excluded any
pet over the age of 8 years. If you had adopted
an elderly pet, you could be tempted to knock a
couple of years off his age in order to get your
pet insured. But don’t do it – it’s really not
worth it!
Alternatively, you may genuinely believe that
a condition is too trivial to disclose. For
instance, your pet may have been treated for
fleas and you may have completely forgotten
about it. But when the pet later develops a skin
complaint which could be related to the flea
infestation, you could find you weren’t covered.
One thing that can make it very tempting to
“forget” to disclose something is the bad record
some pet health insurance providers have of
finding excuses not to pay out.
One pet owner had a claim turned down
for a cat who developed a food allergy.
The reason given was that when the cat
first arrived at the owner’s home, she
had worms which led to a mild case of
diarrhoea!
Another cat developed chronic renal
failure for which bills for immediate
treatment came to hundreds of pounds, in
addition to monthly check-ups continuing
indefinitely and costing £40 a time. A
well-known pet health insurance provider
refused to pay out. The reason? The cat
had had a urinary tract infection FIVE
years earlier.
Such incidents cause great dismay and
disappointment - you have been paying into your
pet health insurance policy for just such an
event. It could well make you regret having told
the truth.
But the answer is not to avoid being
truthful, tempting as it may be. It could lead
to serious problems later on. Be as truthful as
possible, but before signing up with any pet
health insurance provider, find out as much you
can about their pay-out record.
And, as always, check the small print.
