Pet insurance - worth getting or scam?

We're probably getting a female chocolate lab puppy in the next few weeks.

In the past we've always just paid out of pocket for pet care and assumed that pet insurance wasn't worth getting (never really paid too much attention to it before). But recently we've had a few friends end up with bills of several thousand dollars for ACL repairs and other surgeries, so now I'm giving it another look. 

Additionally,  through work I get a discount on Prudent Pet insurance (10%?), so I figured it was worth making some inquiries and checking it out. 

Anyone have any experience with Prudent Pet, or any other pet insurance?

My one experience with pet insurance (not Prudent Pet) suggested to me that it was worthless.  They pay based on "reasonable and customary" rates (which weren't even close), after a large deductible, copay, and and then only a percentage.  The one time we tried to use it for a thousand dollar vet bill, we got about $85 back.  Perhaps there are worthwhile policies out there, but since then I haven't bothered to check.

Research the policy. They're not all bad. One thing to know is that they don't pay your bill directly, they reimburse you afterwards.

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

I can work with that, I need to sit down and do some math and research typical cost to figure out if the cost/benefit makes sense. 

We get a discount on Nationwide pet insurance from my work so I just looked at that on Monday.  We've got two dogs and (sigh...) a cat now and the yearly expense was going to be just shy of $1,000 to get a plan with a $250 deductible that would reimburse 70% of the costs after that.  I am assuming that the deductible is "per-pet" and not a family thing, but I didn't look that up.  It doesn't cover regular checkups or neutering, just illnesses and injuries, basically.  We decided that we average way less than $1,250/yr at the vet for illness/injuries, so it didn't seem to make sense for us.

Do the math, figure out if you think that it is a good deal. We're offered a plan through work. I remember thinking that for certain breeds, for certain dogs (My parents lab, for instance - I could tell when he was a puppy that there was something wrong and he'd need surgery on his legs, sure enough, torn ACL) it would make sense. With all of my dogs that I've had, it did not make sense because anything that was that expensive (meaning, invasive) would honestly just result in us putting the dog down. 

In reply to mtn :

That's been our approach in the past, but having friends that have had to pay for ACL surgery makes me second guess.

I'll have to be extra observant on Friday when we go to pick ours. 

My daughter has it through her work for about $10 a month. It pays 50%. Her dog just had knee surgery on both rear legs due to luxating patellas. The insurance reimbursed half of the $6k+ bill. No issues, no trying to weasel out of the claim. She sent them the invoice, they sent her a check. 

IIRC her's is through Nationwide. I'll ask. 

It is through Nationwide.

mtn said:

Do the math, figure out if you think that it is a good deal. 

If it's a good deal, their actuaries aren't doing their job right.

The premium should equal (Claims + Overhead + Profit) so the average customer should pay more for the insurance than paying the bills on their own.

Having said that, one could game the system if they know their risk profile is significantly higher than what the insurance company estimates.

In general though, I think insurance should only be purchased for loses one can't afford to cover. 

We used ours for one of the Boxer pups in the first three months of age, so about a month after we got them.

Just got to use it wisely, for us the deductible was less than the total cost for the visits and medications needed.

We use Prudent Pet for insurance I guess.

There is a comparison website out there according to the wife.