What if I need an operation and you didn't save enough money?

This might be the greatest deal in all of commerce right now. It’s certainly the least publicized, relative to the benefits rendered.

Pet wellness plans. Seriously. A few dollars a month for uncommon peace of mind…because animals still can’t tell you where it hurts.

America’s largest veterinary chain, Banfield, the Pet Hospital offers its Optimum Wellness Plan for a mere $23 a month if you enroll your puppy or kitten early enough. (Competing chain VCA offers a similar program.) Pricelessness now has a price – and an awfully reasonable one, too.

No matter how well you might take care of them, even the healthiest cat or dog will come down with something. A pet wellness plan saves you money on everything from vaccinations to dental treatments to comprehensive exams and all sorts of lab work. Pet wellness plans even cover free checkups when you notice something out of the ordinary. One routine tooth cleaning for your dog can end up running $600 without a plan, and God forbid if your cat needs to be dewormed or something. With a pet wellness plan, it’s all covered.

At first mention, the very concept of a pet wellness plan might sound a little too esoteric to be legitimate – the veterinary equivalent of an extended vehicle warranty or rustproofing.

But a pet wellness plan is different. Don’t confuse it with insurance, which operates differently in the sense that with insurance you’re paying for something (fire coverage, death benefits) that you hope you’ll never use. A pet wellness plan is really just a steep discount on something you’ll almost certainly buy anyway, in exchange for a long-term commitment from you. For all parties to the transaction, it’s an unequivocal win-win-win. The pet hospital gets a customer, hopefully for life, who’ll have little incentive to seek out a competing veterinarian. You get across-the-board savings. And your pet gets better care than humans receive in some Third World countries.

My two cats of indeterminate pedigree – one from a shelter, the other from a garbage can – both joined the family at the age of 6 weeks or so. Each got their requisite vaccinations and sterilizations at the recommended time, at which point it was time to shop for a permanent physician. We enrolled them in wellness plans the moment we digested the literature, and the $276 annual investment paid off before their first birthdays. Administer an infectious peritonitis vaccine here ($24), a metronidazole prescription there ($35)…add an MRI to determine the cause of a blockage, or treatment to reduce the swelling from a scorpion bite, and your vet bill can add up quickly.

But a pet wellness plan reduces the standard office visit fee from $35 to 0. It lowers the payment on some in-office treatments by 75%. And it gives you 7-day-a-week care transferable to any pet hospital in the chain. The comprehensive exams alone (rectal, ophthalmic and many more) justify the cost of the plan, and then some.

You won’t have to ask your HMO for reimbursement, either. While a visit to the vet will probably never be enjoyable for the patient, a pet wellness plan can make that visit a lot more palatable for the patient’s chauffeur.

**This post is featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #271**

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