Yeah, I've seen it mentioned there too as I recall.  I don't do it
myself, but I will once I get out of debt.

In the mean time I have a line of credit that would put pet insurance to
shame so it's not like I'm risking my pets' health -- It's just cheaper
for me to "invest" the money in getting out of debt since if something
does come up tomorrow I can handle it.  Once I get out of debt, I'll
definitely be working on a pet savings fund in addition to my rainy-day
fund.

This technique will scale the more pets you have, as long as you're
prepared to take the risk that you'll end up with a huge bill before
your saves are built up.

With insurance, you could be $72 into your insurance (4monthsx$18=$72)
and get $3000 in health care out of it should something happen.
However, once you reach critical mass (say $3000/pet in the bank
account), you can basically stop paying into it and still have the
benefit of insurance.

Sure, and I covered the risk of a large charge occurring earlier rather
then later.  This is the reason why pet insurance isn't always a bad
thing -- If you can't afford to shell out for a medical condition early
in the cat's life, before your bank account has built up a balance, then
you should definitely get insurance.

I'd highly recommend starting the bank account immediately even if you
get insurance, then by the time the cat is 10-12 years old if you
haven't had any significant health issues you can look into canceling
the insurance since you'd have money in the bank by then.

The big downside to most of the pet insurance plans I looked at was
simple:  It invariably costs equal or more (over the course of the cat's
life) then you can possibly get out of the plan in terms of benefits.

Assuming your cat lives to 18-20 years you're paying $3888-$4320 (per
cat) into the plan over the course of the cat's life.  Between annual
and/or lifetime maximum limits (which negate the benefit of insurance in
the event of a chronic condition), and the fact that some insurance
plans don't cover recurring incidents of the same problem, it's
virtually impossible to get more out of the insurance plan then you put
in.

Moreover, if your cat lives a long and healthy life and doesn't end up
using the insurance then at the end the insurance company still has your
money -- If you'd invested it in a bank account, you'd have that money.
In other words, your next cat is self-insured for life for free if you
leave the money in the bank.

Don't get me wrong, insurance as a whole isn't a bad thing.  I'm
currently renting my house, my insurance (for contents and liability) is
only about $432/year, or $25920/lifetime assuming I insure for 60 years
(80 year lifespan, I didn't start insuring until I was 20) -- However,
should an event occur, I get a payout of $60,000.  In this case, saving
the money isn't productive since if you ever need the insurance you
can't possibly have enough in the bank.