With more and more people in the US and the UK getting pets, and with the constantly rising costs of veterinary services, it’s not a surprise that pet insurance is becoming a frequently discussed topic. More people in both the US and Europe are starting to insure their pets but there are lots of others that are still undecided. With pet insurances themselves being far from cheap, it’s easy for a lot of folks to decide that “my dog will probably be all right”.
Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Pet vet bills can rise well beyond the 2-digit or 3-digit sums pet owners are used to. Quite often your dog or cat can go through something that requires a vet bill that’s in the thousands.
For example, last year, a dog was suffering from seizures and required treatment that cost some £30,000 in the UK. This was one of the record numbers for insured pet treatments in the country for 2017.
That, and many other vet bills got the total payout for insured pets in the UK to the staggering £775m.
The trade body the Association of British Insurers are on record that over one million claims were made in 2017. That’s an increase of 10%, compared to 2016 and the numbers are expected to be higher in 2018.
Still, most dog owners are still reluctant of insuring their pets, which can cost them a lot of money. For 2017, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that around 67% of dogs and 84% of cats in the UK are still not insured. The ABI also shared some other date from 2017 recently, and among them is a golden retriever with a fracture that got a £10,000 in vet bill, as well as a cat with inflammatory bowel disease who‘s vet bill reached £9,600.
Other data shows that the average bill is a bit more tolerable at £757, but for pets that require surgery, the average costs are around £1,500.
The general policy adviser at the ABI, Joseph Ahern, said this put owners “at risk of having to fork out thousands to cover the costs of vet treatment because there’s no NHS for animals”.
