Digging into the facts on this common question and unveiling an insurer who will cover your pet for pre-existing conditions.
There’s a common misconception that pet insurance is only necessary for sick pets. The notion that pet healthcare cover is something you only need when your pet gets sick or is at risk of certain health conditions and diseases due to ageing or genetic predisposition is not only one that will leave you with a large amount of out of pocket vet bills, but it will also lead to disappointment and stress that could have been avoided through a proactive and responsible mindset when it comes to the health of your pet.
The longer you wait to insure the health of your pet, the more strain will be placed on your wallet and your pet’s health.
The reason for pet insurance is simple - to help your pet to receive the care they deserve in order for them to lead a long, happy and healthy life. And the sooner you get it, the better.
But enough about why pet insurance just makes financial sense, let’s get into why you are really here - the matter of pets and pre-existing conditions.
Read: How Pet Insurance Can Extend Your Pet’s Life
What is a pre-existing condition?
Generally speaking, these health concerns are classified as significant medical conditions that your pet is either diagnosed with or shows signs of before you enrol him in an insurance policy.
A number of pet insurers deem pre-existing conditions a high insurance risk, and rightly so. Pre-existing conditions which can range from diabetes, arthritis to cancer and even heart disease, are all incredibly expensive to treat and difficult to care for. So, for many insurers, it doesn’t make financial sense for them to cover pre-existing conditions.
And I can’t blame them for excluding these sorts of health issues from their cover.
However, when a pet owner recently asked me to do some digging into what their pet insurance options were when it came to pets with pre-existing conditions (after finding out her Maltese Poodle has cancer), I put myself to the task and dived deep into the world of pet insurance. And here’s what I found…
Oneplan Pet Insurance
If you are an avid reader of this blog, then you are likely to notice a pattern in my mentioning of this one specific insurer - Oneplan. And truth be told, no matter how much research and time I spend investigating other insurers, this is the one that I always come back to, and for more than just one reason.
For this article, in particular, I reached out to the Onepet team and asked them what their policy was when it comes to pre-existing conditions and pets.
And, as it turns out, they cover pre-existing conditions after a waiting period of 12 months. Which, in the grand scheme of chronic treatment costs, is more than worth the wait.
Oneplan and their cover for pre-existing conditions
According to their policy wording document, Oneplan describes pre-existing conditions as follows:
“Pre-Existing Condition” means a medical condition, or condition that presented Clinical Signs, that were in existence prior to this policy’s Inception Date, or in existence during the first three months during the waiting period or that was newly diagnosed within the first three months from the Inception Date of the policy, whether it was known or unknown to you.
Head’s up - this kind of condition existed before your policy began and it doesn’t mean that your pet was diagnosed of it, he or she could even have been showing the symptoms for it to be classified as pre-existing.
Cover for genetic diseases
What’s interesting is that not only does Oneplan cover pre-existing conditions, but they also cover medical concerns that are related to Congenital (disease your pet is born with) and Hereditary (inherited condition from parents) health issues. The same waiting period of 12 months applies to these issues.
A real-world example
Let’s look an example to better explain how this cover works…
If you find out that your pet is diagnosed with cancer today and you then decide to enrol him with Oneplan Pet Insurance, then you will have to wait 12 months until you can claim for any vet bills relating to the treatment of cancer.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t claim for other vet bills during this period of time. Depending on your chosen plan, you can still claim for routine healthcare costs, vet visits, accidents, illness and other medical bills (as long as they are not a result of or relating to cancer or the pre-existing condition).
And, as I’ve mentioned before, Oneplan is the ONLY pet insurer who pays you before you visit your vet of choice.
Until next time,
The Pet Insurance Team