Almost 90% of the treating veterinarians are clearly in favor of taking out animal health insurance. This was determined by a study by the Tierärzte Wochenschrift in 2020. Compared to other European countries such as Great Britain and Scandinavia, Germany is still alarmingly low in terms of the number of insured pets. Given rising costs, animal health insurance is becoming increasingly important.
The appeal of the physicians to pet owners to have their animal insured is based on a topic that is still neglected but is becoming increasingly urgent: a lot has happened in the fields of veterinary medicine in recent years, so that treatment options are qualitatively the claim of the have obtained human medicine. The adjustment of the scale of fees for veterinarians (GOT) and rising personnel costs, but also cost-intensive technical equipment lead to a noticeable increase in the necessary expenditure for pet owners. Unlike in the field of human medicine, however, these must be borne entirely by the owner and thus often cause (actually avoidable) resentment.
In addition, pets play an increasingly important role in our lives. They occupy an essential place in the life of modern people so that the treatment demands on the part of pet owners are (rightly) increasing. This also means that the financial responsibility of the owners is growing. Because a pet not only brings with it the everyday costs that can be planned but can also become acutely or chronically ill or suffer a sudden accident. The treatment of the animal should not fail at this moment due to the lack of funding. Where insurance in other areas of life, especially material things, is taken for granted, animal health insurance is still underestimated.
Since the topic of insurance is usually a complex one, the search for the right one for many pet owners is already the first major hurdle. For this reason, we would like to shed some light on the most important aspects below.
What makes good insurance?
The quality of animal health insurance, like classic health insurance for you, depends on several factors. Nevertheless, a few points should be kept in mind when searching:
- Basically free choice of veterinarian
- Billing up to 3 times the GOT rate, in emergency services up to 4 times the GOT rate (PDF)
- Transparent statements on how to deal with hereditary diseases, pre-existing conditions, chronic diseases, etc. – exclusions from benefits must be clearly recognizable
- Possible assumption of preventive measures as part of the annual health check (vaccinations, ecto- and endoparasites, tartar prophylaxis)
- In the case of pure surgery insurance: full assumption of the costs of preoperative diagnostics and postoperative therapy
- Direct settlement of the veterinarian with the insurance company
- Lifetime Insurance
