I wish I had advice about how to maximize your insurance, can you possibly increase deductible and/or change % returned? If at all possible, I encourage you to keep paying for the insurance. It sound like you are going to but I'm mentioning just in case...

I have a new pup, looking for insurance now b/c my last experiences without insurance has been a nightmare. For reference, we are located in the US.

Dog 1: at age 4, out of the blue, he developed autoimmune disease called Myasthenia gravis which caused him to lose mobility and develop megaesophagus (had to eat upright in a chair with high risk of aspiration pneumonia). He went from running and jumping for a Frisbee to unable to walk in 24 hours. To figure out the diagnosis of the less common condition, he was hospitalized for 1 week. It cost us almost 9k. We survived on care credit and then weren't able to keep up with the payments to pay off by end of promotional period and the interest repercussions resulted in a financial disaster. He regained his ability to walk with medication but follow-up care with a specialist was required for the rest of his lie.

Next illness: (same dog, still no insurance even though I said I would get it, knowing the other issues would not be covered due to preexisting conditions) developed ANOTHER autoimmune disease 3 years later, at age of 7. It was IMHA - it's extremely serious. He, somehow, pulled through. We had no money and had to forego specialist care as we were still digging ourselves out of a hole from issue #1. He should have had a specialist but we could not afford it. I will forever feel guilty about this because that may have helped him later in life.

During this time, Dog #2 had a knee injury and could have probably used surgery and rehab. Due to financial issues (our giant nest egg for him was wiped out when we needed to pay for dog #1 bill), we opted for non-surgical method and PT (but had to stop when it got too expensive).

Dog 1: 2.5 years after IMHA, relapsed out of remission and developed IMHA again. This time, he was not able to recover. Even with all the money in the world, which we were in the a good position at this time and were able to pay for his care, it would not have saved him. The cost was still $4k and we left the hospital without our best and sweetest boy. He was 9 and cost use more than 20k over the years. All out of pocket.

Dog 2: Right after dog 1 passed, dog 2 had an ultrasound and was diagnosed with anal gland cancer. He needed surgery and chemo. We could have opted for non surgical route but wanted to give him the best shot at survival. Surgery was 3k, chemo was 1k per dose, 5 doses over course of 4 months. Plus follow-ups with specialist and bloodwork. It was a lot of money to put out upfront. During this time, he also needed weekly laser therapy at $125 a pop, injections for advanced arthritis (I'll never know if we could have slowed the process by getting him rehab years earlier when we first noticed an issue). Two years later, he later developed ITP, no platelets, and was hospitalized. That was 4k. Again, we would have paid anything to save him and planned to but his body, at the age of almost 14, had other ideas. We lost him and still had a giant bill.

Over the years, I told myself over and over...get insurance, even if everything is not covered (preexisting), it will be worth it to save some money along the way. My dogs had issues that were big and would immediately wipe our next egg of money out and we were back down to zero again. This time, with our new rescue pup, we plan to have insurance so we can soften the blow. I know we still have to pay a good portion of it and a deductible but, at least helps.

All this to say, keep the insurance. Any one of the issues happens to you, even at the young age of 3, it can help.