Pet Insurance Overview
For those of you who are unfamiliar with pet insurance, let me give you a quick background.
Pet health insurance began in 1982 in the US when TV’s famous canine hero, Lassy, was insured. Veterinary Pet Insurance, most commonly known as VPI, was the first company in the US and North America yet pet insurance in North America is still quite uncommon. About only 1% of pet owners have pet insurance today. This compared to some countries in Europe reaching insured levels of 40% of pets.
The North American pet insurance industry was up an estimated 21% in 2007 from 2006, with gross written premiums totaling $248 million. From 2003 to 2007 the market showed a total growth of 56%. Canada has shown somewhat faster market growth, growing their market share from under 9% in 2003 to over 15% in 2007.
There are currently 11 pet health insurance providers in the US and three in Canada, with some marketing more than one brand name. All of these companies combined write about 850,000 to one million policies. As the ‘pets as family members’ trend continues to grow, so is the expected pet insurance industry. The more the people value their pets, the more effort goes into improving veterinary services, the more sophisticated and thus higher costs of treatment become available. More and more companies are entering the market place each year, which will undoubtedly force each company to create better products. That coupled with the down turning economy will most likely prove to make pet health insurance more popular.
Pet insurance is somewhat different from human health insurance, in that you can use any veterinarian you choose, you have to pay the bill of front, then you submit the claim to the insurance company for reimbursement.
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