Which pet insurance is right for my clients? - Petplan

Now many consider insurance as one of the cornerstones of responsible pet ownership, but some owners across the country still don't have cover for their pet. Others find out the hard way that their policy is not right for their needs. Petplan insures more than 1 million pets and as Paul Brennan reports, they work with vet practices to help their customers get the right cover. Pat Oban is a dog breeder and owner and has had pet insurance with Petplan since the 1970s. Today Xanthi is in for a follow-up appointment and Pat says the insurance gives her that peace of mind. Basically I looked at the different sections on there and the vet said well this is the best policy to have cover for life because it does go through their life without any worries and he explained exactly how it would be for me and I appreciate what they did. Operations for our pets can prove costly. For example, a cruciate ligament repair can cost anything up to £4,000. That said, only 35% of pet owners in the UK actually do have pet insurance. Unless they are extremely cash rich, they won't be able in many cases to afford some of the vet bills that are generated nowadays and that's through nothing more than veterinary medicine improving significantly in terms of technology, in terms of training and in terms of care for the patients. While some pet owners feel insurance is only needed to cover accidents, 90% of claims are actually for illness. Just one of the reasons why vets like Richard work closely with Petplan. The way that it helps our customers and their pets is to allow them to make decisions based on what the best clinical decisions are in order to get their pets better rather than concentrating on the costs and the understandable worries about their budget. Many owners who do take out pet insurance treat it like any other insurance, often shopping around for the cheapest deal online, but this is not necessarily the best approach. There are lots of types of pet insurance in the market and it's really important to do thorough research and really understand what's on offer and also really think about what the provider is offering you. So there are lots of providers, but for me it's about choosing a provider that can pay out and has a reputation for good claims experience and also that really understand pets because, after all, pet insurance isn't like car insurance or home insurance. It's our friends. We want to look after them. So better to choose a pet insurer that really understands pets. Which is why Petplan works closely with practices offering training and ongoing support to help veterinary staff better understand policies so that they in turn can help owners. We have a field of territory managers so they're going out day in day out and they're visiting vet practices, they're providing support, they do training, they're there to update them on performance, lots of different things just that they've got this very close relationship and it's a very good way of building that relationship but also it means the vet practice knows that they've got someone that they could go to if they've got a problem which enables us to work much more closely with them but it also then helps them deal with their clients because they can know that they've got somewhere to go. There are a number of different types of pet insurance available so it's essential pet owners are aware of the type of veterinary fee cover they're buying. So you've got lifetime policies so that covers you for ongoing conditions throughout your pet's life. You've then got a maximum benefit policy which will cover you up to a certain amount of money for a condition and then you've got a time limited policy which will cover you for either 12 months or up to a certain amount of money per condition and then it's no longer covered. There's no further treatment for but either way Pat can be assured her pet's health care will be sorted whatever the outcome.