After my recent battle with emergency vet bills for my beardie's prolapse I remembered that the company I work for offered pet insurance for cats and dogs through VPI (http://www.petinsurance.com/plans-and-coverage/bird-and-exotic-pet-insurance.aspx). I looked into it and found that they offer exotics insurance as well that's surprisingly low cost. The plan I got has a $50 deductible and reimburses 90% thereafter for all illness and emergency care. When the lady on the phone quoted me only $9.00 a month (and that's without my company discount) I signed up right then and there. I've seen quite a few threads in the health section here and in the ER section talking about being unable to afford care and just wanted to put this option out there as a great way to make proper and timely vet care much less financially frightening.
I have a very sick dog who likes to vaccuum up most of my money, so whenever Zeke gets sick, I always find it hard to put money towards his vet visits. This may be a great idea for my little guy!
So, today I called VPI to get info about this plan too. The person on the phone told me the same, $9 per month. BUT he said that they will only cover the visit if there was an illness with the dragon. So, this means that if, lets say, I hear the beardie make a popping sound, and I guess it is a URI and bring him to the vet, and they do a x-ray to make sure, but he doesn't have anything, I have to pay for the x-ray and the visit and everything!!
I'm not sure if the person on the phone was right but if the system is like that, it looks like gambling then, unless you know for sure that there IS and illness for sure...
i don't think pet insurance really pays much. i had it for awhile but ended up cancelling when i realized i could have just been putting the money into a rainy day fund if/when my beadie ever needed it. i've saved up a decent amount so far.. and for extra piece of mind i signed up with a veterinary discount plan "Pet Assure" which gives a discount on most medical procedures, checkups etc. since it's not insurance it's only something like 8 dollars a month, or what i pay for netflix. here is their page for lizard insurance.