- Guest Contributor
- April 8, 2021
According to the American Pet Products Association, about 68 percent of U.S. households had a cat or a dog. Pets are fun, but many people don’t often think about them getting sick. An illness could be mild, or it could end up costing you thousands. Less than 2 percent of the cats and dogs in the United States have health insurance. Having pet health insurance can save your pet’s life – instead of having to put your pet down because you can’t afford medical bills, you can get your pet the care it needs.
What Is Pet Insurance?
Pet insurance comes in three forms: Accident coverage, wellness coverage, and illness coverage. Some companies offer all three types, while others might not offer wellness coverage. You can shop around for the best insurance through Jobble Perks, where you’ll find deals through companies like Wagmo.
Emergency coverage covers illnesses, injuries, chronic conditions, and emergency care. Wellness helps you with pet care and covers items such as flea and tick medication, grooming, checkups, and vaccines.
If your veterinarian writes a prescription for your pet, you can get it from the veterinarian, or you can order some medications from Chewy’s pharmacy, including heartworm prevention, flea and tick medication, pain relief, allergy relief, and medications for health conditions.
Why Pet Insurance Is a Good Investment
When you are a gig worker, your income is not as steady as getting a weekly paycheck. You might be starving one month and rolling in money the next month. If your pet should have an emergency during a slow period, you could deplete your savings, or you might not have any money to pay vet bills.
Having pet insurance significantly cuts veterinary costs down. You can even minimize expenses for ongoing care with pet insurance. And, pets love to get into things they are not supposed to get into, or if a pet escapes and injuries itself, insurance covers any emergency surgery and care to get it healthy again. The small amount you pay in monthly premiums could not only save your pet’s life, but it could ensure that you don’t have to choose between keeping a roof over your head and your pet’s life.
Pet Insurance Changes Based on Age
With yearly checkups, you can catch things that affect your pet as they age. Puppies and kittens need more health care because of the rounds of vaccines and worming they need. Then, during early to middle adult age, less for emergency injuries, your pet doesn’t require as much wellness care, less for booster vaccines, a tooth cleaning, heartworm medication and other minor vet visits.
As your pet ages, it might need additional pet care in the form of one or more urinalysis tests each year, fecal tests, and grooming. While younger, pets groom themselves, so that is less that you have to do. As they get older, especially pets with arthritis, it becomes harder for the pet to clean itself, so it relies on you to help out.
Working as a gig worker means you don’t get some of the benefits you would get when working for someone else. Make sure you’re staying on top of the latest deals for independent workers like you through Jobble Perks so you, your pet, and the rest of your family are all covered and protected.
About the Author: Cheryl B. has been writing about pets and other subjects since 2007. Prior to that, she worked as a paralegal, and still does virtual paralegal work. Cheryl shares her home with a German shepherd dog and an umbrella cockatoo.
