Insured animals on rise
By Eileen Alt Powell
Associated Press
NEW YORK — When Alyson Dutch's yellow Labrador encountered not one but two rattlesnakes this spring, she was glad she had pet insurance.
Associated Press
The dog, named Sullivan, had his first run-in with a rattler in March in a neighbor's avocado grove. Anti-venom serum and other treatment for the bite on his nose cost $1,500. A month later, Sullivan walked into another rattler, this time on a hiking trail. The veterinarian's bill was $925.
Alyson Dutch bought insurance for her dog, Sullivan. The insurance covered 60 percent of the cost of Sullivan's treatment after he was bitten — twice — by rattlesnakes near his Malibu, Calif., home.
Dutch, a 40-year-old publicist from Malibu, Calif., said her pet insurance covered 60 percent of the bills.
"Let's face it, I'd do anything — pay anything — to make him get better," she said of her 3 1/2-year-old dog.
More and more pet owners are investing in pet insurance, which comes in two basic forms.
Dutch has a comprehensive health and accident indemnity policy from Veterinary Pet Insurance of Brea, Calif., one of the largest pet policy underwriters in the nation. Her policy with a rider for routine vet care costs about $425 a year, she said.
The other form of insurance is more like a preferred provider organization, or PPO, that humans use for healthcare. Often offered as an employee benefit, PPO coverage for pets gives owners discounts at vets who agree to participate in a care network.
Still, not everyone needs pet insurance, said Robert Hunter, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, which is based in Washington, D.C.
"Dogs aren't people," Hunter said. "You have to have insurance on your children, on your wife, on yourself. But you don't have to have it on your pets."
He argued, too, that there are so many animals in need of rescue "that it's hard to advocate spending thousands of dollars on an old dog who's very sick ... when a lot of healthy young dogs are put to death every day because there is no home for them."
Still, Hunter said, he could understand pet owners who buy insurance, especially if they have very valuable dogs or are so attached to them that "they would spend thousands rather than have a dog euthanized or they couldn't sleep at night worrying about their pets."
Dr. Aine McCarthy, a veterinarian in marketing for Veterinary Pet Insurance, said the main reason people buy pet insurance is so "they won't be unprepared when they're faced with the cost of an unexpected accident or illness."
Most policies, she said, covered vet examination fees, hospitalization, anesthesia and surgical charges, and prescription medication.
She said the premium for a dog averages about $20 a month for health and accident coverage, while a rider for routine care would add about $100 a year. Premiums for cats are generally less.
But consumers need to be aware that most policies exclude pre-existing conditions as well as hereditary problems. In other words, if the breed of dog is susceptible to hip problems, coverage of hip care may be excluded.
