Healthy Paws | Pet Insurance Review

I've had this insurance for 3 years now and it's more than paid for itself. I've used it twice now and the turn around time for payment was very fast both times. Definitely recommend!

I'd never had pet insurance but after a year or so of periodic "my puppy got into something and we've got to go to the vet" I looked into getting some coverage and decided on Healthy Paws in 2018. I didn't know how important that would end up being in 2019, when my dog started having severe GI issues--vomiting, diarrhea, etc.--that would not go away. We spent a week making daily visits to the 24-hour ER vet to be told on a Friday that her bloodwork showed she had life-threateningly low levels of some proteins in her blood and that the best option was being admitted to a specialist care facility that could monitor her over the weekend. It was hard enough to go through with that but thanks to Healthy Paws, the huge financial cost of the treatment was manageable. We paid upfront for the hospitalization and within a few days got reimbursed for 80% of the cost per the terms of our plan. They continued to cover the follow-up care that our dog needed afterward, and I'm happy to report that our dog has been healthy for over 2 years following that. The main takeaway is that pet insurance is a safety net. It won't cover everything, but it's there when you need it most, and you never know when that day might come.

Our experience with Healthy Paws was exactly the opposite of the typical concerns and horror stories that you read about when it comes to pet insurance. Not only are the terms and conditions specific, but they have gone out of their way to look for ways to support our dog Betty through what has now been multiple unfortunate surgeries in her young life. She is now very strong and will hopefully be with us for manyyyy years to come, and having the support of Healthy Paws has made all the difference.

Seven years ago when I got my first dog, my cousin advised me to look into pet insurance. I was not sure at the time, but it was the best decision I made. Through research, I found Healthy Paws, and I decided to give them a try since they seem to have great coverage. For the first few years, we did not need to use the policy. However, in 2018, when my dog was about three, our dog had multiple indolent eye ulcers, and he couldn't open his eye. I can credit Healthy Paws for helping me save my dogs eyes. After several costly procedures and many specialist visits, my dogs eyes were healed. They paid all claims in accordance with the contract. Also, it is very easy to submitt a claim by app or online, and the claims are usually paid within a few days. I recently got another puppy, and I looked at insurance policies again. Although, Healthy Paws premiums were a little more expensive a month, I decided to go with them due to their great coverage. My puppy just tured one, and needed surgery on his nares and soft palate to breath better. I was pleasently suprised when Healthy Paws approved the claim a few days later, and even wrote me a persoanl get well message. Based on my current experience with Healthy Paws, I will be a customer for life.

I will attempt to make a very long winded review as short as possible. I have had dogs my entire life and for most of that time I was aware of pet insurance but I though it was a bit of a scam, meaning that it really only paid for emergency type problems and that it was not worth the cost. Fast forward to May 2020 and I get a new puppy and the woman I am dating also has a dog and she tells me about Healthy Paws and how great it is. I get the insurance for my new puppy Ruby. Healthy paws covers pretty much everything but exams, preventative medication (flea, tick, etc.) and vaccinations…. Everything else is covered. So now the long part of how much Healthy Paws helped us. All of the ordeal I am about to go into was covered by Healthy Paws except for our deductible which was 20% and any exam fees. We calculated the payments from Healthy Paws to be around $35,000 over the course of this single problem. In early 2021 Ruby started to have on and off vomiting, so we took her to the vet who did x rays and found no real problem, they though it was viral. The vomiting continued on and off a bit more so we took her to another vet for a second opinion. This vet ran bloodwork, did x rays and an ultrasound and still did not find anything. Fast forward a few weeks and Ruby vomits blood so we take her to a third emergency vet who does an x-ray and an ultrasound and discovers that Ruby had part of a squeaker toy in her large intestine and it has perforated her intestine. It more than likely was in her stomach since she started vomiting but did not show up because it is clear plastic. When it finally made it past her stomach and into her intestines it because stuck because of the size and then perforated her intestine has her body tried to work the squeaker through her GI track. Ruby had emergency surgery that day and a blood transfusion to help with the blood she lost, she spent 2-3 nights at the vet recovering and was doing okay. Because of all the blood Ruby lost she was anemic after the surgery so she required blood test every few days. As we had test, the vet noticed that Rubys red blood cell (RBC) count was not improving. After a week or so of additional testing, it was determined that the area on her intestine where it was cut and sutured by the vet had separated and the sutured needed to be restitched, so Ruby goes back in for a second surgery. Ruby recovered okay for the second surgery but still was anemic with no improvement in her RBC count. We took her to three different vets (our regular vet, the emergency vet, and University of Pennsylvania Vet school). None could find a reason why Ruby was still anemic other than the assumption she had a slow bleed from her surgery site that they felt would eventually heal. At this point we are in July of 2021. Over the next 7-8 months ruby required 3 more blood transfusions, several ultrasounds and 30+ blood test to check her RBC count and other values. Here we are today in March of 2022 and Ruby is almost back to normal. She still is requiring monthly injections of iron and monthly blood test to monitor her improving anemia and RBC count. Everything I mentioned above was covered by Healthy Paws and reimbursements to us were often made the same day, I do not think we ever waited more than 3 days for a reimbursement of a vet bill. Healthy Paws also never questioned any of the bills and we never were required to get preauthorization for a specialty vet or surgery. The only time Healthy Paws ever had anything to say about the bills we submitted was them checking in to see how Ruby was doing and wishing us well. Long story kind of short… get pet insurance. Without Healthy Paws we would have had to make very hard decisions about continuing Ruby’s care due to the cost, as the bills were $40,000+. We would have either burned through a lot of savings/gone into debt or had to put Ruby down.