Pet insurance renewal - pre existing condition

j4ynut

gettingready I've tried to explain, it's not hip dysplasia it's shoulder dysplasia, it's his front legs, his hips aren't affected by this, so as it's his front the vet is confident it can be diet controlled and medicated for for as long as possible, but he wants us to get his weight down a bit first and to give him the supplements and monitor before he knows what he wants to do, but we caught it early. I understand it will eventually cause arthritis and I'm not trying to say I don't want to renew. He's 2 years old and he's a Springer / Collie cross, as he's mostly Springer I was betting on arthritis later on anyway as every Springer I've had has sadly suffered from it. The renewal form specifically has a section for medical history, but it's not clear on whether that's just sent as standard for new and existing as the forms I received are broad in the fact that only the renewal letter says what policy I have, whereas the rest of the forms refer to all of the different plans available, so I'm not sure if the medical history form even applies to me.

krlyr thank you so much for taking the time to find those sections for me, it makes much more sense now. The renewal I received wasn't as detailed as that, this was the biggest problem. The part about anything resulting in a likely claim just isn't in the paperwork. As you said, they may just want to note it on the system and it might not change anything, they may just want to keep the history from the start so that they have all the information for later. Thanks again for the info though, it's been really helpful. I'll give them a call tomorrow and I'll report back what they say just incase it can help anyone else in the future. It's a tricky one, bad timing as I said.

j4ynut

Thanks Fire Fox, I'll get onto them tomorrow, better to be safe than sorry as they say.

Thanks everyone for all the advice, this is my first time on the forum and you've all been great, thanks very much everyone.

j4ynut

Hi everyone, just an update, I called them this morning and they said it wouldn't make any difference to the renewal as I hadn't claimed anything yet, but as I was ridiculously paranoid about telling them they noted it on the system for me that he now has that condition and that it was diagnosed before renewal. They said that it would effect my premium for next year but not this year as I hadn't claimed for it on the last policy.

So the moral of the story is, just tell them anyway! Save yourself the panic! Thanks again everyone for all the advice.

Bromley86

So the moral of the story is, just tell them anyway!

This. We often incorrectly assign values to risk. In this case, the risk of telling them was a very small increase in the premium (relative to the massive amount that the insurance company is now on the hook for, even if the dysplasia doesn't require surgery).

The risk of not telling them was them refusing to pay anything for any condition.

Anyway, glad it all worked out. Don't forget you may be able to claim for things like vet diets/joint suppliments, but as you're on a per condition limit you won't want to fritter that away. By that I mean don't allow yourself to be talked into an expensive vet food just because you can claim, because then there will be less in the pot if your dog needs surgery.

Once you hit the condition limit, consider switching to another policy (pref. lifetime). The only reason to not switch would be (hypothetically) if you'd only claimed for the front left leg and PDSA say that the other 3 legs are still covered, whereas the new insurers class all hysplasia as preexisting.

krlyr

Going off on a slight tangent, I've looked into alternative treatments for arthritis as I now have a breed prone to it and found this website a great read
http://dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

Also many people on other dog forums swear by magnetic collars - Bioflow is the big name but there's another brand called Armidillo that are half the price but still seem to do the same job so could be worth a try.