How Dog Insurance Policies Work In Singapore

As our country starts becoming more affluent, dog owners are increasingly spending more money on their pets. Gone are the days where owning a dog simply meant giving them food and taking them for walks. These days, taking care of the needs of a dog includes giving them treats, sending them for grooming services and the occassional stayactions when owners are out of the country.

You can add insurance policy to that list as well.

Pet insurance is relatively new in Singpaore. Even among pet owners, not everyone knows about it and how they work.

Covering Unexpected Medical Expenses

Pet insurance is mainly a type of health insurance. The insurance allows you to defray the potentially high cost of medical expenses that could be incurred if your dog falls ill.

Some of the medical expenses you may incur include the following

# 1 Clinical And Surgical Cost

If your dog falls ill or get into an accident or injury, the cost of treatment could be quite costly. In such an instance, owners need to fork out money for the treatment, including any possible surgical cost.

These include the possible cost of room and board expenses, if your pet is required to stay overnight at the vet, and any post-surgical treatment, if required.

# 2 Chemotherapy Cost

Dogs, like human, can be diagnosed with cancer as well. Similarly to human, chemotherapy treatment is one way to manage the illness. But that’s also a cost that owners would need to bear.

# 3 Final Expense Cost

Your dog will eventually leave you one day and a simple cremation is something most people would want. That will cost money.

Co-Insurance Cost

For most of these expenses, a co-insurance component is usually included. For example, you might be expected to pay between 20% to 40% of the total medical cost.

The logic for co-insurance is simple. To ensure that pet owners continue to take responsibility for the well-being of their dogs in spite of the knowledge that they have medical coverage.

Deductibles

In addition to the co-insurance component of the policy, you might also be expected to bear a fixed cost for the treatment in the form of the deductibles, before the co-insurance component kicks in.

Other Coverage:

Third Party Legal Liability

Let’s say your dog goes out there and do something stupid, like take a nice chunk of meat off someone’s leg. You are asked to cover the medical bills. In such instances, your insurance policy will cover your liability arising from what your dog did.

Accidental Death

If your dog passes away due to any sudden circumstance (e.g. accident), the policy may also pay out what we call a death benefit. Unlike humans, this is usually a small amount, since we don’t expect your dog to be bringing home income for the family.

Should I Get A Policy For My Dog?

Actual premium per year differs depending on the type of breed and the age of the dog. In general, you can expect to pay about $365 (or $1 per day) for basic insurance coverage for your dog.

If we assume you pay for coverage of 10 years, you might be paying about $3,650 over a 10-year period.

Say you make two claims during the 10 years period, and the cost of treatment was $2,000 per treatment, here is how the benefit illustration would pan out.

From the table above, you can see that even with an insurance policy, owners are expected to pay part of the medical bills.

Even with a couple of medical claims, the cost of insurance could still be higher than simply paying for the treatment without any insurance policies.

That being said, the purpose of insurance is to hedge yourself against adverse circumstances, and to give yourself some peace of mind. So if you are the sort that would send your dog for treatment and be worried about the medical cost that follows, a dog insurance may help ease your worries.

Read Also: The Cost Of Owning A Dog In Singapore

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