Rabbit insurance is just as important to your rabbit as the food that they eat and the air that they breathe. Having rabbit pet insurance can mean the difference between life or death for your rabbit in the event a medical emergency should arise for either you or the rabbit. Veterinarian bills are costly and expensive, however, they don’t have to be with this particular type of pet insurance for rabbits.
Trying to find an insurance policy for your rabbit can be difficult because it’s not considered a standard type of pet insurance; often times you will see this type of insurance policy listed under the category for exotic pets instead of rabbits. When doing your shopping you should always get a quote, whether online or over the phone from a few different companies before you make a commitment to just one. Always remember that the quote you receive is just an estimate and may or not be what you end up paying.
The best rabbit insurance is going to be the policy that gives you the most comprehensive coverage for the best price. The majority of these rabbit insurance companies are going to have a few different levels of coverage for your rabbit – usually 3. The differences between these levels of coverage can vary wildly with the lowest just covering basic emergency care and the highest covering one routine yearly visit on vaccinations.
It’s always good to keep in mind a few things before presenting your rabbit to any insurance company.
- The age of your rabbit
- The breed of your rabbit
- The rabbit’s vaccination record
These are the three most important factors to take into consideration. The age of your rabbit is a big issue because some insurance companies might not give you a policy on an older animal or it might decide to terminate your policy abruptly without notice once your pet reaches a certain age so always make sure to have the specifics of your policy regarding age clearly spelled out to you and presented in a way that is easy to understand. Of course, you always want the details of your policy recorded down on a piece of paper and legally agreed upon by both you and the rabbit insurance company.
Fortunately, rabbit medical insurance isn’t that expensive at all and falls somewhere in the range of $10 USD per month. If you take this and compare it to the long term scheme of things, it’s an absolute must have. Consider this scenario: you have just purchased a 6 month old rabbit and you want to insurance it. If that rabbit lives ten years, you will pay $10.00 x 120 (120 months in 10 years) = $1,200.00 over 10 years in insurance for your rabbit. If that doesn’t scream necessity at you, the average cost of one emergency visit at your veterinarian can cost right about that; the entire amount of money you save will pay for itself back many times over again.
The average rabbit insurance company will pay for about 80% of all of the costs of the medical bills. Always make sure that your policy includes the coverage of emergency visits, medications, tests, lab work and diagnostics as some unscrupulous insurance companies might not cover everything, leaving you with a large bill at the end of the day. These companies will usually give you a life time coverage amount and a per incident charge. For example again, your rabbit might have $40,000 coverage for its entire life but can only use up to $5,000 per incident; an incident is described as a medical condition that occurs and is either treated or non-treatable for the future. Pre-existing conditions are usually not covered unless you purchase a special plan and a lot of hereditary rabbit problems are also not covered unless you find a rabbit insurance policy that will specifically cover and address that.
Something that a lot of rabbit owners are surprised to find out is that your veterinarian in most cases will want payment for their treatment services upfront and will not wait for your claim to be filed, processed and returned to you. What this means is that you need to plan on having to pay the money for any treatment upfront while you submit your claim; your claim can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks on average to process before you get your portion of money back provided it was approved.
If you are still unsure about where to find a rabbit insurance company then you can begin by either asking your vet, friends that are fellow rabbit owners or by browsing the web. Getting a few different quotes is a good idea and always do your research into the legitimacy of the company itself.
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