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View Full Version : One of Most Important Issues: Nobody Is Talking About It



protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:09 PM
Fewer things are more important to those of us who are PET OWNERS, than the health and life or death of our pets. No matter whether we have a dog or cat or parrot or horse or whatever we have, most of us consider our pets to be part of the family. That being said, it is amazing that so little notoriety is given to the huge issue of pet insurance, and our capability to keep our pets ALIVE.

What is needed to do that, for those of us who are not quite wealthy, at some point in time, is pet insurance. The problem is that unlike human doctors and hospitals, who simply take a plastic card from you, check your insurance, and give you your care (and the doctor/hospital gets reimbursed later), veterinarians require immediate payment. You must pay for your pets care (surgeries can costs many thousands of $$$), UP FRONT, or the surgery doesn't get done, and your pet dies.

Sounds crazy. Yes, that's because it is crazy. And it is so ingrained this way, that everyone in the veterinarian BUSINESS seems to take it very nonchalantly, as normal procedure. I see it as INSANE procedure, and I call upon every pet owner to be up in arms over this, and contact your US congressmen, senators, and state legislators to do something about it. I hate to reduce it to those terms, but I'm afraid that's right where it's at, folks.

The veterinarians have a strong lobbying group working for them, but they are nowhere near as strong as the votes of millions of pet owners, who care to keep their pets alive and well. That lobbying group is the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Assn). They contribute money to members of both the US House & Senate, and a 2014 list of recipients is included in the link at the bottom of this page. If your legislator(s) is on this list, you should call them and demand that they stop taking money from the AVMA, and sponsor legislation to require veterinarians to simply treat your pet's care the same way your human doctor treats your care.

Lastly, I will say that, as a former business owner, I am probably just as much against the govt interfering in the affairs of private business as anybody else, but this is much more than just that. This is veterinarians, and their AVMA goons interfering in the lives of our pets, and endangering them, by putting up needless barriers to their critical medical care when they need it. The greatest hospitals and surgeons of humans in the world, accept the policy of reimbursement TO THEM from insurance companies. If they can do that, so can veterinarians.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00114132&cycle=2014[/QUOTE]

Cigar
12-16-2014, 03:14 PM
I've had it for years ... it's even covered for my employees

sachem
12-16-2014, 03:20 PM
Fewer things are more important to those of us who are PET OWNERS, than the health and life or death of our pets. No matter whether we have a dog or cat or parrot or horse or whatever we have, most of us consider our pets to be part of the family. That being said, it is amazing that so little notoriety is given to the huge issue of pet insurance, and our capability to keep our pets ALIVE.

What is needed to do that, for those of us who are not quite wealthy, at some point in time, is pet insurance. The problem is that unlike human doctors and hospitals, who simply take a plastic card from you, check your insurance, and give you your care (and the doctor/hospital gets reimbursed later), veterinarians require immediate payment. You must pay for your pets care (surgeries can costs many thousands of $$$), UP FRONT, or the surgery doesn't get done, and your pet dies.

Sounds crazy. Yes, that's because it is crazy. And it is so ingrained this way, that everyone in the veterinarian BUSINESS seems to take it very nonchalantly, as normal procedure. I see it as INSANE procedure, and I call upon every pet owner to be up in arms over this, and contact your US congressmen, senators, and state legislators to do something about it. I hate to reduce it to those terms, but I'm afraid that's right where it's at, folks.

The veterinarians have a strong lobbying group working for them, but they are nowhere near as strong as the votes of millions of pet owners, who care to keep their pets alive and well. That lobbying group is the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Assn). They contribute money to members of both the US House & Senate, and a 2014 list of recipients is included in the link at the bottom of this page. If your legislator(s) is on this list, you should call them and demand that they stop taking money from the AVMA, and sponsor legislation to require veterinarians to simply treat your pet's care the same way your human doctor treats your care.

Lastly, I will say that, as a former business owner, I am probably just as much against the govt interfering in the affairs of private business as anybody else, but this is much more than just that. This is veterinarians, and their AVMA goons interfering in the lives of our pets, and endangering them, by putting up needless barriers to their critical medical care when they need it. The greatest hospitals and surgeons of humans in the world, accept the policy of reimbursement TO THEM from insurance companies. If they can do that, so can veterinarians.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00114132&cycle=2014How do you feel about pet tattoos?

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:20 PM
I forgot to mention. My local TV news station did a report today on pet insurance. They showed nice, clean veterinarian clinics, and lots of cute dogs and cats. They showed verterinarians lecturing us about how we should all get pet insurance. What they didn't say one word about is why almost nobody has pet insurance. That being the requirement to pay for care up front before anything is done. I can hardly remember when I've watched a news report and been so infuriated.

I called my veterinarian office and asked them how many patients they have. The girl said "about 200." So I asked how many of them have pet insurance. She said "honestly, I'd say about 1 %". I'm not surprised.

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:30 PM
How do you feel about pet tattoos?

Never thought about it. I do have one cat who has a computer chip for identification. My other cats stay inside all the time, so I'm not worried about them running off and getting lost.

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:33 PM
I've had it for years ... it's even covered for my employees

It's useful for wealthier people who can afford the 5 or 10 thousand $$ fee up front (maybe more). If can afford it, lucky you. If you can't afford to pay the upfronts, it's worthless to you. I think all employees, like yours, should have it, just like they should have human insurance, it just shouldn't have the large initial fee barrier, that's all.

PolWatch
12-16-2014, 03:39 PM
One of my pet (sorry) peeves is the issue of vet prescriptions. Alabama is one of the few states that allows vets to refuse to write to prescription for the pet's medications. You have to purchase it from the vet office, or you don't get it. I was very irate when I discovered my vet of 20+ years refused to give me prescription for a medication that I could buy at a people pharmacy. He wanted me to pay 7 times the price from his office. I had been using the same vet for many, many animals for over 20 years. I changed vets.

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:40 PM
ConsumerAdvocates.org rates healthy paws as the # 1 best pet insurance in their list of "10 Best Pet Insurance of 2014".

FALSE!! healthy paws is just as worthless as all the rest of them, which require reimbursement TO PET OWNERS, rather than to veterinarians.

The Xl
12-16-2014, 03:41 PM
I spent a lot of money to try and keep my late cat alive. It's amazing how much the shit costs, I doubt all that stuff is inherently that expensive.

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:45 PM
One of my pet (sorry) peeves is the issue of vet prescriptions. Alabama is one of the few states that allows vets to refuse to write to prescription for the pet's medications. You have to purchase it from the vet office, or you don't get it. I was very irate when I discovered my vet of 20+ years refused to give me prescription for a medication that I could buy at a people pharmacy. He wanted me to pay 7 times the price from his office. I had been using the same vet for many, many animals for over 20 years. I changed vets.

Good thinking. If they want to play hardball with us, we just drop them. You might be interested to know that WalMart had a big fight against the AVMA, for the very reason you mention. it resulted in legislation being filed.

Introduced by Rep. Jim Matheson, HR 1406 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.+1406:#) requires veterinarians to issue prescriptions to clients, enabling pet owners to bargain hunt in pharmacies for their pet medications. The bill stipulates that veterinarians may not refuse to write a prescription or charge a fee for it.

I'm not sure how that turned out. Here is a link to the story >> http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=19967

protectionist
12-16-2014, 03:50 PM
I spent a lot of money to try and keep my late cat alive. It's amazing how much the $#@! costs, I doubt all that stuff is inherently that expensive.

I went through exactly the same thing in September 2013. I sense the rates are rip offs, and the barrier to having pet insurance, makes it all the worse.