Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Embrace Pet Insurance: conditions that affect your policy issue

In most cases, we will issue you a policy for your dog or cat no matter what pre-existing conditions he or she might have. For example, if your dog has a skin condition, we can issue you an accident and illness policy as long as he is within the applicable age range and the skin condition is listed as a pre-existing condition.

However, there are a few unique pre-existing conditions that lead us to only issue an accident-only policy. These are:

• Diabetes
• Cushing's Disease
• FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus – cats only)
• FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis – cats only)
• FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus – cats only)

The reason for this exclusion list for illness coverage is that these conditions have such an impact on the overall body systems of a cat or dog, it is very hard to tell what is and what isn't caused by the pre-existing illness and a lot of conditions would be excluded. This makes for a very poor experience all round if the majority of claims is denied.

At least by telling you from the start how things stand, you only pay for the accident coverage and you know up front what you are getting.

There are also a couple of other conditions that need special note.

Hyperthyroidism: if your pet has ever been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, we can offer you an illness policy (assuming all other terms and conditions are met); however, any treatments or medications related to hyperthyroidism are not covered under your policy (as you'd expect). In addition, hyperthyroidism can contribute to kidney problems, high blood pressure, and heart problems and we do not cover these conditions under your policy if hyperthyroidism is a pre-existing condition, no matter what the cause is determined to be.

Cancer: if your pet has ever been diagnosed with cancer, we can also offer you an illness policy (as long as all other terms and conditions are met); however, we will not cover future incidences of cancer of any type and location.

Again, we tell you this up front so you are clear what you are buying.

What veterinarians say about pet insurance

Many veterinarians say good things about pet insurance - after all, the vet can do more of the right thing for a sick cat or dog when money becomes less of an issue.

Many vets don't care either way since they may not know much about the products available or haven't heard of anyone getting a policy.

But some vets come right out and clearly advise against pet insurance, saying it doesn't pay out.

Well, historically, that has often been true as there are many reasons why the current pet insurers don't pay what you might expect out of the vet bill:

• many pet insurers do not cover genetic or congenital conditions and some conditions you might not expect, such as cancer and skin conditions, are often considered genetic and denied;
• some pet insurers only pay based on a benefit schedule, not what you paid your vet, and so the payouts can be much lower than your actual cost;
• some pet insurers don't cover a chronic condition once your policy renews;
• some pet insurers cap payments on a low per incident limit so that coverage stops sooner than you'd think.

All of these issues have given pet parents good reason to moan about pet insurance in the past and vets pass on these concerns to other pet parents, assuming that all pet insurers are like this.

Well, things are looking up now that Embrace is on the scene. For the record:

• we cover genetic and congenital conditions;
• we pay out based on the vet bill, not a schedule;
• we offer you the option of covering chronic conditions going forward; and
• we do not have a per incident limit

Vets needn't worry about Embrace Pet Insurance paying out on claims.

If you are considering pet insurance, make sure you know what your coverage does and does not  provide so you have the coverage you think you are getting.