The idea of getting pet insurance for your furry friend(s) is often overlooked or intentionally ignored by owners. While a seemingly rational thing to go for, pet insurance can be quite a financial burden.
Unless the owners have explicitly experienced any kind of misfortune with their pet – an illness, an accident, or something similar – they may often believe that they don’t even need insurance at all.
Embrace Pet insurance offers a health care policy for your pet.
ASPCA allows you to visit any veterinary clinic in the United States.
Conversely, other owners might fear for their pet’s safety and wellbeing so much that they would dish out on an incredibly expensive, all-included pet insurance, only to find out that they had little to no need of it, to begin with.
In all situations, it’s best to evaluate the circumstances and see what type of pet insurance would be most suitable for your pet in particular. Since the truth is that any pet, regardless of age, sex, or breed, is bound to experience some difficulties in its lifetime. And while an older animal may benefit from a full service, younger and active pets would benefit the most from an accident only pet insurance.
But what exactly is accident only pet insurance? What are its benefits and drawbacks?
We answer it all below – and offer you the best accident only pet insurance providers to go for while at it.
What are the Pros and Cons of Accident Only Pet Insurance?
Like all things in life – and all types of insurance – accident only pet insurance comes with both positive and negative sides. Before you decide whether it’s the right type of insurance for you and your pet, you should be aware of both cons and pros.
After all, the safety of your pet and the state of your wallet are important factors that need to be considered.
Accident Only Pet Insurance Pros
- Good for young and active pets
- Good for pets who don’t have underlying health conditions
- Least expensive type of pet insurance on the market
- Least expensive premiums compared to other pet insurance policies
Accident Only Pet Insurance Cons
- Only covers for accidents
- The majority of the policies need to be renewed annually
- Most of the time there’s a cap on how much you can claim per accident
Ok, now that the basics are out of the way, let’s see which are the most popular – and highest-quality – accident only pet insurance providers you can contact!
Comparing Accident Only Pet Insurance Providers
While there are many accident-only pet insurance providers to choose from – after all, it is quite popular for obvious reasons – we decided to focus on a select few.
Hopefully, you’ll manage to find what you’re looking for in one of them!
Embrace
Embrace is an incredibly popular and well-reviewed provider which values both the physical safety of the insured pet and its emotional well-being, Embrace is a safe choice for most pet parents. Their accident only insurance plan covers all kinds of mishaps – car accidents, poisonings, bloating, and lacerations, to name a few.
One thing to note, though – this plan cannot be newly implemented for pets older than 15 years. However, if the insurance was put in place before the 15th birthday, it will remain for the rest of the pet’s life, with no need for annual renewals.
This policy would reimburse you up to $5,000 per year, and also comes with an annual $100 deductible which reimburses 90% of your vet expenses.
ASPCA
ASPCA’s accident only insurance plan is definitely the cheapest one they offer and is only available for cats and dogs. It covers all kinds of accidents and all kinds of injuries sustained as a result – surgeries, bone breaks, tooth extractions, and others.
Their deductibles vary between $100 and $500, corresponding to reimbursement of expenses between 70% and 90%. You can choose the most suitable option for you depending on your circumstances. However, the same doesn’t go for caps on annual benefits.
Whereas some states have absolutely no caps, others impose a benefit limit between $3,000 and $10,000 to choose from.
AKC Pet Insurance
The third best option we recommend, AKC Accident Only Pet Insurance, includes, like the other providers, a variety of coverages for different kinds of injuries. Such are snake bites, ankle sprains, and bee stings, alongside the main ones.
While the amount they charge varies significantly according to your pet’s age, breed, sex, as well as your state of residence, you can rest assured that they’ll offer you the fairest quote you could hope for.
Which Pets Should Consider the Accident Plan?
It was somewhat alluded to before that not all pets can be enrolled in an accident only pet insurance plan. Moreover, not all pets would benefit from one in the first place.
For example, older pets, with already failing health, would have almost nothing to gain from one. Why? Since the types of problems they may experience will likely be more varied than the typical issues an accident only insurance would cover.
To be clearer, accident only plans don’t include illnesses, so any pet which has a high probability to fall ill would not benefit from one. Animals with genetic and chronic illnesses fall under this category, too.
This is why accident only pet insurance is best for young and active animals who would often put themselves in risky situations. Since it’s also the cheapest type of pet insurance, it is suitable for owners on a budget.
Any animal which doesn’t seem like it’s going to contract anything anytime soon, which is strong and energetic and which happens to have owners who don’t have copious amounts of money to spend, is the perfect candidate!
What an Accident Only Pet Insurance Plan Covers
So, what comes and doesn’t with an accident only pet insurance plan?
While the types of accidents covered by accident only pet insurance vary, the usual ones include car accidents, bites from other animals, ingestion of foreign objects, unwarranted bloating, poisoning, cuts and stabs, sprains, etc.
If your pet has experienced any of these inconveniences, the vet treatment expenses will usually be covered by the insurance. As long as they aren’t above the cap instituted by the insurance provider or your state, that is.
Best Accident Only Pet Insurance
All in all, we would advise you to go for the option that gets you the best bang for your buck.
Analyze the offered quote and go for an affordable option that also includes a number of benefits. The wider the range of accidents covered, the better. Also, if it’s in your power, try to avoid a benefit cap or any similar restrictions.
Out of the ones mentioned above, we’d recommend Embrace, as it’s quite upfront about their prices and also offers a good compensation for the inability to insure 15+-year-old pets with the accident only plan. On the condition that the pet’s insured at the time of its 15th birthday, it can get covered for the rest of its life!
In many ways, this is an even better option than most regular accident only plans, since most of them need to be renewed annually. This would save you both the money and the struggle of going through the process repeatedly.
And, considering how they reimburse up to 90% of veterinary expenses for only $100 per year, they seem like a reliable option with reasonable prices. Sounds like a winner to me.
