[Porsche-O-Phile]

Used to have it. Dumped it. By the time you get through the deductibles and exclusions it really didn’t cover much of anything but that’s the nature of insurance - getting you to bet against yourself and always lose.

I “self insure” now and I’m happy. Yes there’s the risk of needing to pay a big vet bill but that’s my decision. I’ll do a lot for my pets but money and how much I’m willing to pay is a real factor - as it should be with human healthcare too. It doesn’t mean we love our pets (or relatives) any less. It only means we’re being pragmatic and considering the real cost of care.

I don’t know why people are so reluctant to put a dollar value on human life (or a pet’s life - and I definitely consider my pets absolutely part of my family and life and love them to pieces). I think we should be willing to go through that exercise but people act horrified by this notion and feign indignation instead - opening the door for crookery (a la “insurance sales”) and exploitation... not to mention the bazillion-dollar healthcare industry that pops up around providing endless treatments to terminally ill people at the end of their lives, capitalizing on their HC proxies’ squeamishness to set a dollar cap on what their relative’s life is worth - just like the insurance companies do incidentally (they just don’t talk about it much - it’s driven by actuarial data to ensure that just like Vegas, “the house never loses”).

I’m seriously considering building a dollar cap into my health care proxy and power of attorney (that my kids will get when I’m older). When it costs $X they’ll be instructed to pull the plug. It has nothing to do with love or not loving them or them not loving me - it has everything to do with making sure they don’t get taken advantage of by sleazeballs.

And so it should be with our pets too. What are you willing to pay for their care under what circumstances? It depends - what quality of life, how long, prognosis, etc.?

Honestly I think insurance just obfuscates that hard reality and decision - and ends up costing us all a fortune in money and many in needless suffering when they should be allowed to expire - as is natural... when it’s their time.