When we adopted our dog (now 6 years old and 44 lbs, a mix of at least 5 different breeds) we took out what I considered to be a “catastrophic plan” to insure her and help us avoid difficult healthcare financial decisions when she grows old, or sooner (though hopefully not). The policy has a $1,000 lifetime deductible per injury/illness and no maximum benefit. When we took out the policy it was $25.03/month. It is now up to $57.15/month. A 128% increase over 6 years feels pretty steep, especially when she’s statistically speaking less than 1/2 of her way through her expected lifespan. Should I be regularly shopping around the same way one does with auto or homeowners insurance, or are the chances that I will find a better value now that she’s 6 low? I remember reading when I took out the policy that with pet insurance it’s better to insure early when the dog’s health risk is very low to “lock in” a low rate and picked Trupanion because at the time they advertised modest premium increases being a feature that differentiated them among their competitors. I don’t feel like 128% over 6 years is modest, and if the increases continue to increase at the accelerated rate they have been doing so, I feel like it may be worth surveying the field to see what else is out there. I like her coverage and feel that it works for our financial situation. (We are fortunate that we can afford regular wellness visits and any unexpected medical items < $1,000). TIA!

Is it even legal for Healthy Paws pet insurance to increase premiums at almost 200% in CA? This is outrageously high!! Anyone experiencing the same? #healthypawspetinsurance

Looking for updated info — my pet’s annual dental cleaning usually runs **$900–$1,200** (under anesthesia, with X-rays). **Nationwide’s wellness plan used to reimburse for it**, but I just found out that plan is **being discontinued** or no longer offers the same benefit. Most "wellness add-ons" I’ve looked at (like Figo, Spot, etc.) only reimburse **$75 or less** for dental cleanings, which barely makes a dent in the total cost. Has anyone found **a provider that actually covers full dental cleanings** under wellness or medical plans? Either as part of a **preventive package** or through **major dental** coverage?

Trying to figure out how much longer I should justify purchasing insurance for my goldendoodle. He is very healthy, not overweight. But I do have some pricey allergy treatments for him a couple times a year, but doubling his insurance is crazy! Any recommendations? \*\*Nationwide pet insurance\*\*

About 3 months ago, I got in a car crash where the car got fairly significant damage (I oversteered into a tree). I notified both the local police department and Hertz about the crash, got incident reports from both, and moved on with my merry life (after getting a replacement vehicle from Hertz). I got emailed a request to fill in a vehicle incident report from Hertz, which I submitted the day of receipt. Now here’s the thing: I didn’t have any insurance from Hertz, relying on secondary insurance from my credit card. I don’t own a car, so there’s no primary auto insurance to speak of. My credit card insurance provider requires claims to be submitted within 100 days of incident for them to consider them, and they require a statement of claim from the rental agency in order to submit claims. I’ve gotten crickets from Hertz in this respect the past two months…and I’m concerned that they won’t provide me with paperwork in time for me to appropriately file the claim. I was *considering* sending Hertz a polite but firm letter using certified mail asking them to provide me with a statement of claim in a timely manner in order for me to proceed with this claim given that I don’t want to wake up to a $20,000 bill from Hertz in half a year or something that my credit card insurance policy won’t cover. Is this a good idea? If not, anything else I should consider? I’d appreciate any advice! Jurisdiction: the car was rented in Virginia with a New York drop-off. The crash occurred in Virginia, and I’m a New York resident.

I have Wishbone pet insurance, and they are very slow to response for either. Everyone has been very nice, but my claim just got denied for 6 months after my dog ruptured her CCL. What is frustrating is she had the zoomies on 5/3/2025 and that is when she tore her CCL. My waiting period is 5/9/2025. Am I just out of luck and 5 days is the difference between 3k out of pocket?

TL;DR: Employer canceled insurance benefits without notice while on FMLA due to nonpayment, despite efforts to pay. Hi, there. I’m currently on a medical leave of absence from work, and have been experiencing some difficulties with my FMLA/insurance benefits. I’m new to this, so any input would be appreciated! My leave began the last week of December and I’m set to return on 3/24, the last day of my FMLA protection. Since my leave started, my main priority was getting my insurance premiums taken care of so as not to lose my benefits, especially since I’ve racked up substantial medical bills over the course of my leave. I reached out to my benefits department, and was instructed to reach out to a third party (WEX) to make payment, which I did. WEX informed me that there was no balance due reflected on their end, and to reach back out to benefits. This back and forth has gone on for months now. At one point, they told me to reach out to BCBS to make payment, and BCBS acted like they had no idea why I was directed to them in the first place. I’m over 10 weeks into my leave, and have not received a single correspondence about my health insurance until today. Not a phone call, email, or letter. I did, however, receive a bill from WEX for my vision and dental coverage, but nothing whatsoever in regard to my medical coverage. Once I received the dental/vision bill, I called same day to make payment and was told, again, that there was nothing in the system to apply payment towards. Reached out to my benefits department again, and they said they could see the unpaid premium for my dental/vision. Called WEX again, and after escalating and speaking with a supervisor, was told that the reason why I was unable to pay my dental/vision is because the plans had been cancelled due to nonpayment. When I reiterated several times that I’ve been trying to pay for quite some time by that point, I was told that if I mailed the payment ASAP, there is a “strong possibility” they might reinstate the plans. I mailed the check the following morning, and am hoping it works out in my favor. What I’m most concerned about, though, is my health insurance. I spoke to someone in our benefits department in February, and was told that because I’d exhausted my PTO the first half of January, my insurance premium would have been deducted from one of those paychecks. According to the representative with whom I spoke, “January was covered.” I told him I’d received bills for my dental/vision coverage, but still hadn’t received anything for my health insurance. He told me to just wait a little bit longer for it to show up in the mail. Over 10 weeks later of non stop calling and trying to stay on top of things, and I still haven’t gotten anything. I expressed that due to the nature of my leave, I really needed to keep my insurance coverage, and was terrified the third party was going to cancel my policy for nonpayment. He reassured me that the only one able to cancel my insurance would be my employer, and they would “of course” provide me with ample notice prior to that. When I told him it didn’t make sense that I’d receive bills for my dental/vision but not my health insurance, he told me to not worry because my health insurance will remain as is regardless. That my account would just go in a rears and my employer would deduct the unpaid premiums accrued during my leave from my future paychecks once I’m back to work. A supervisor from benefits called me today (10 weeks after my initial call), letting me know that the reason why WEX didn’t have my balance due in their system was because my health insurance was cancelled on 1/28. When I told her that I’ve been calling for help for months now, and continue to get the runaround, she just kept saying it was my responsibility to cover my premiums while on FMLA. When I told her that benefits told me no one would cancel my health insurance without notification, she disregarded it. Same when I mentioned the rep telling me that my account would just go in a rears and they’d deduct the premiums from future paychecks. She told me that I owed for January, February, and March, and that there is a 10-day grace period where I can get caught back up to “hopefully” have my coverage reinstated, but couldn’t be for certain. I checked my last paycheck from January, and the deductions are reflected on it. I’m just very confused because she was adamant I owed for January still too. I just don’t see how they can cancel my insurance: 1. Without notice, and 2. After I’ve made an effort to get it paid since the very beginning of my leave. Someone had mentioned this being problematic because of potential FMLA violations, but I’ve never gone through this before and I’m honestly unsure of the process, and obviously don’t feel comfortable reaching out to my employer given the misinformation I’ve received thus far. Our market is experiencing mass layoffs right now, and I was hesitant to go on leave in the first place because of it. I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning or not, but the day before my leave was set to begin, thought to call Alight just to make sure I was not going to be reprimanded for not coming in. The representative informed me that my LOA request had been cancelled. This gave me pause, as the only ones who knew about the LOA request was my immediate supervisor and Alight. I’d have been no call, no show and subsequently terminated had I not thought to call beforehand. I’ve just been worried so much about all of this, and honestly regret taking the medical leave even though it was necessary. I’ve spent more time going back and forth with my employer than I have with my physicians and it’s been hell. Does anyone have any input regarding this situation? Is this just an HR issue and nothing more or should I consider seeking legal counsel? Thanks so much ❤️

In May, I rearended another vehicle. My fault, I'm a dumbass. The damage was to my left front bumper, which was pushed back into the tire, the left front fender, and left headlamp. At the scene, the truck was not drivable due to the bumper being pushed into the tire, so I called a tow truck. The tow driver showed up and offered that rather than towing, he could hook his winch to the front bumper and pull it out to make the truck drivable again. I was good with that plan and it saved money for the insurance company on the tow bill. A couple days later, I take the truck to the insurance company's DRP shop. I told them all of the above. A couple weeks go by, I go to pick the truck up. They fixed everything EXCEPT the left fender, saying that the damage was unrelated due to a "soft impact". No one from the insurance company ever called to discuss. In reality, the fender looked dented in from partial reformation when the bumper was winched out. But again, no one ever called for the partial denial of damages and just left it to the body shop to tell me. So I filed a DOI complaint citing the lack of investigation by the adjuster. The DOI rep never called me but closed the case, stating that the insurance company did nothing wrong. The DOI letter cited the appraisal clause in the policy, however, at this point I'm more angry about the lack of communication and investigation by the adjuster as it was very shoddy and incomplete work. I also don't think hiring an appraiser would be particularly effective in arguing related damages (but maybe I'm wrong?). I don't think I'm able to sue over damages due to the appraisa clause in the policy but would prefer to sue for bad faith. Or maybe I should just walk away and pay to have my fender repaired? Anyone have experience here or ideas on what I should do?

Hi all - I was wondering what the likelihood that my Appeal that I finally sent in will be successful or if I'm just going to continue getting the runaround from United Healthcare. At this stage is it worth doing anything else (or do I have to wait until the Appeal plays out?) Some details... The claim that I filed with United Healthcare had all the correct, relevant, and necessary information including the in-network Tax ID, the Practice’s pertinent information, the doctor’s name, itemized receipts (two – one paid with FSA and one paid with credit card), and other pertinent claim-related information. United Healthcare processed the claim as out-of-network, but the Practice is in network, which made me receive +/- $3,000 less in reimbursement than I should have (due to that money going to an out-of-network deductible). I have called United Healthcare more than 15 times now across 3 months to see what else is needed and to fix the wrongly coded EOB and I’m always told that United Healthcare made a processing error and will fix it – but it never happens months and months later. The EOB erroneously states that this was an out of network event, but everything was in-network, and I have coverage for the procedure on my plan. Once again, every time I have called United Healthcare, they have told me that I’m right, that they are ‘backing out’ of the old claim and will fix it, and every time nothing has been fixed. I just called earlier this week, and the 15th advocate I spoke with (after taking 20 minutes to look over all the times I called and notes) said I was 100% absolutely correct, I should have received an EOB saying it was in-network, and the determination was wrong, but folks keep coding it – inexplicably – as out of network. She encouraged me to appeal....which I just did. Expectations of what may come next? Thank you.

Location: Dallas, TX. I was out of town in November, and my vehicle was being driven by my housesitter, who was involved in an incident where (I believe) the other driver was at fault. She stated she was sitting at a four-way stop when it was her turn to move forward and a driver came through the intersection without stopping and swiped the side of my vehicle. He provided to her his drivers license and car insurance information at the time of the incident. When I returned from my trip, I filed a claim with his insurance, which was USAA. No police report was filed. I have insurance through Texas Farm Bureau but liability only with a 1k deductible. The first agent I worked with at USAA was completely unresponsive, I reached out multiple times to her over the course of several weeks before I had any follow up and had to escalate my claim to a manager. Finally, a second agent was assigned. The second agent originally told me that, based on the first agent’s notes, the claim would be closed in my favor, she just needed to verify with her manager because no one had been able to contact the driver. The next time we spoke, however, she said they needed to speak with the driver to verify events before they could close the claim. Basically, over the course of several months, the driver refused to contact USAA or speak with them about the claim. According to the agent, they sent several letters and calls. I’ve just received a denial letter from USAA and the advice from the new agent is that I file a claim with my insurance and they can try to recoup any monies from USAA; however, I’ll basically just be paying out of pocket bc of my 1k deductible and liability coverage. I haven’t gotten an estimate on my vehicle yet but the damage doesn’t seem extensive, I would think maybe $1000-1300 in repairs; however, much more than I can afford. Do I have any recourse to get this handled with USAA? Updated to add paragraph breaks. :) Also updated to say I will double check with my agent about my policy tomorrow (they're closed now). I thought I had liability with a 1k deductible but I'll double check on whether or not thats for collision coverage. I looked at my policy documents and I can't tell what I have... Thanks for all the help !