India is home to over 10 million pet dogs, making it the nation with the sixth largest pet canine inhabitants worldwide. The reputation of dogs as pets in India is unmatched with 34% of Indian pet house owners selecting dogs as their most well-liked pets.
Unfortunately, reviews from the Journal of Animal Health and Production state that the information regarding potential zoonotic illnesses affecting pet dogs stays disappointingly low amongst pet house owners in India. Common boundaries to proactive information gathering and illness prevention embrace excessive prices of veterinary remedy and insufficient insurance coverage choices for dogs — points raised by 43.33% and 36.25% of pet house owners respectively.
However, efficient options to those issues exist. For starters, pet insurance coverage can present complete protection for a wide selection of potential pet well being points.
“Under a pet insurance coverage cowl, varied coverages are available to pet house owners. An OPD cowl may help pay for any bills incurred at a veterinary clinic. The variety of diseases lined underneath the plan could differ from insurer to insurer. A Specific Illness Cover can present protection for varied diseases like benign tumours, gall bladder stones, hepatitis, cataract, amongst others. This cowl additionally helps pay for any bills associated to diagnostic procedures, drugs, chemotherapy, dialysis, blood transfusion, amongst others,” mentioned Vivek Chaturvedi, CMO and Head of Direct Sales, Digit General Insurance.
A pet insurance coverage coverage for a two-year-old labrador for the sum insured of Rs 20,000 is available round Rs 800-1,300 on Policybazaar masking OPD, surgical procedure and hospitalisation bills.
Critical Illness protection is one other viable choice, offering a lump-sum insurance coverage payout upon prognosis of any of eight critical situations like coronary heart issues, kidney failure, liver failure, and extra. Furthermore, some insurers additionally supply Third-party Liability protection, defending pet house owners from monetary losses as a result of damages attributable to their pets’ behaviour. The insured sum for pet insurance coverage can vary from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh, with variance in premium primarily based on components like plan kind, breed, age, and chosen insured sum. “One may also go for a Critical Illness cowl for his or her pets. Under this cowl, a lump sum quantity as much as the sum insured is paid by the insurer in case the pet is recognized with any of the eight crucial diseases like several kind of coronary heart issues, all malignant tumours, renal or kidney failure, liver failure, cirrhosis, pulmonary fibrosis and radial nerve paralysis,” mentioned Chaturvedi.
Apart from this, pet house owners may also go for Third-party Liability cowl supplied by some insurers underneath the pet insurance coverage plan. This cowl can shield pet mother and father from any authorized legal responsibility to pay for any damages in the direction of third-party civil claims of bodily harm or property harm triggered as a result of unruly behaviour of the pet.
What to bear in mind? Some insurers could not cowl sure canine breeds and should have a cap on protection primarily based on the age of the canine. Few coverages underneath the pet insurance coverage plan could include some deductible or may need separate sum insured for sure coverages. Understand the coverages, inclusions and exclusions clearly from the insurer earlier than shopping for the plan, added Chaturvedi.
