Insure your four-legged friend's health

Pet owners are known to do crazy things for their pets. Buying them expensive gifts and treating them to salon and spa treatments are now routine ways that pet parents (as they prefer to be addressed) show their love and affection for their four-legged children.

But a more critical requirement for your pet would be health insurance. Recently, two companies have launched health insurance specific for pets -- dogs and cats. Let us see what the features are and what benefits they offer.

Different from existing products

The new policies pay for the pet's medical treatment, unlike existing policies that cover only death or liability.

Pawinsure, a company that offers insurance for all breeds of dogs and cats, was set up four months ago and launched its product a month back. Karthikeyan, one of the partners, says, "Our target is every pet in India. The human parent doesn't matter to us. We wish to ensure that all pets have basic hospital benefit and no pet is left to die because the human can't or doesn't want to spend."

The other pet-specific insurance policy is 'Vetina's Pawtect', powered by general insurance company Digit Insurance, which was launched last month too.

"Currently our pet insurance is applicable only for dogs, but we will be extending it to other animals as well. Most of the other products in the market just offer death benefits and not the cost of life-saving treatments for pet dogs,'' says Kamesh Goyal, chairman, Digit Insurance.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, for instance, offers pet insurance under its home insurance policy, My Home All Risk Policy, and it covers only death of the pet due to accident or disease.

Features of the new pet insurance schemes

Pawinsure's policy covers health conditions such as heart conditions, blood pressure, diabetes, soft tissue, gastro-related ailments, cancer, etc. It does not cover doctors' consultation fees, vaccination fees and diseases that can be vaccinated, death, accidents, birth defects, pre-existing, pregnancy related, tick-related, food poisoning, object swallowing and theft.

"The basic reason for these exclusions are that insurance should not be used as a mode to avoid basic care. All exclusions are not necessary anyway with simple basic care. It should not be misused to benefit profit motives of humans. The agenda is to ensure no pet goes untreated for health related conditions and not a substitute for basic care,'' says Karthikeyan.

Premiums are approximately between 5 and 20% of the sum insured. The sum insured is chosen by the pet owner. "There are no sub-limits as of now, but this may change as we keep going forward as data and analysis start coming out,'' he says.

Digit's Vetina's Pawtect comes under three plans, Blue Ribbon, Red Ribbon and Yellow Ribbon. Blue Ribbon has the highest premium, covering major soft tissues surgery, third party liability, major illness, accidental injuries. It covers a variety of high cost surgical / medical treatments that the pet may undergo and offers protection from a wide range of major illnesses, major soft tissues surgeries, major soft tissue surgeries cover, any accidental injuries and third-party liabilities.

These plans also cover specialised therapies such as stem cell therapy, laser therapy, blood transfusion and platelet rich plasma therapy under major illness section.

Benefits include consultation /examination fee, emergency care provided, surgeries carried out, laboratory tests for diagnosis, X-Rays, MRI, CT SCAN for diagnosis, hospitalisation/boarding charges, drugs and medications. It does no cover charges for regular upkeep of the pet like vaccinations, regular check-ups and grooming.

"Any treatment due to lack of care by the owner may not be covered,'' says Goyal.

The client has the flexibility to choose from three plans and a maximum of four benefits. Service charges are based on the age of dog, breed, plan and maximum benefit selected.

"The customer has the option to choose benefits up to Rs 1,50,000 depending up on the maximum benefit chosen. This would be highest in the market for a dog medical cover,'' he says. There is also the option to pay in easy installments.

For distribution of the policy, Digit is working in collaboration with Vetina a procurement and distribution company for veterinary health and other animal care products. Vetina will enable the distribution and registry of the pets (microchip fitted in pets and their photographs for identification).

Not cheap to own a pet

A pet is a lot of responsibility and one should think about the maintenance cost before buying one. "People don't have time, but want a pet. This is a dangerous combination. A pet deserves time. Get a pet when you do have time. People want big breeds, which are expensive to buy and even more expensive to maintain,'' says Karthikeyan.

The cost of health care for pets have gone up steeply in the recent years as a lot multi-speciality hospitals offering most advanced treatments for pets have come up. For instance, an orthopaedic surgery for a pet dog today may cost anywhere between Rs 20,000 and 40,000, and an open abdomen surgery anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000. This cost may even go up, depending on the facilities in the hospital and the extent of damage, says Goyal.

Before buying a pet, one needs to be aware of their current expenses, and expenses they will have to accommodate once they have a pet, says Bhupendra Khanal, founder and CEO at Dogsee Chew, a company producing natural dogs treat food.

Food can cost Rs 4,000-5,000 per month, health expenses can Rs 3,000-4,000 once in six months and other essential costs could cost Rs 1,000 -2000 per month. Other expenses could include a pet-sitter or a boarder if you go out for a longer period. If you take your pet on a vacation there would be additional expenses for pet-friendly travel, accommodation and sight-seeing.

"Emergencies could be a sudden and severe health issue or an accident that may require surgeries. Such instances may incur substantial medical bills, and you need to have a share of your savings kept separately for these. Along with that, you may also need to invest in measures to ensure that your pet never gets lost. This could be both as an embedded name tag on the collar or a a microchip or digital ID,'' Khanal adds.

PUPPY LOVE

• Rs 1,50,000 – Maximum benefits offered under Digit's Vetina's Pawtect
   
• Rs 15,000-40,000 –  Cost of surgeries for dogs for various ailments
   
• 5 - 20% – Proportion of premium to sum insured for Pawinsure's policy