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Most people know it is important to have human health insurance in order to provide care for themselves and their loved ones. Pet owners also know that buying pet insurance coverage is crucial as well since pets are part of the family and also deserve advanced medical care if they need it — even if it comes at a high price.
But what many pet owners do not realize is there are very important differences between human health insurance and pet insurance. Here are three big discrepancies to be aware of that could affect the coverage available.
1. Pet insurance can exclude pre-existing conditions but human insurance cannot
One of the biggest differences between pet insurance and human health insurance relates to pre-existing conditions.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (better known as ObamaCare) prohibit human insurance companies from denying health coverage for people due to pre-existing conditions. It also prohibits insurers from charging them higher premiums as a result of existing medical problems.
Because these protections are in place under ObamaCare, insurers won’t be able to penalize people who got sick before getting covered by a human health insurance plan. Even people with serious medical problems can sign up for insurance during open enrollment season that happens once annually. Once signed up, they can pay the same price as everyone else of the same age in the same location, and can get their medical care for the condition covered by insurance.
This is not the case for pet insurance. Every pet insurer has rules regarding pre-existing conditions. Typically, if an animal had a medical problem before getting covered, any treatment that might relate to that existing issue will not be covered by the insurer going forward. This means if a pet owner does