Pets are great! The cost of owning a pet is easily outweighed by the seemingly endless love a cat or a dog can give you. Most people would find this a great value when they think about only having to feed it and care for it in return. What many pet owners eventually find out though is the enormous cost of owning a pet. Not even considering what a full grown cat or dog can potentially cost from the beginning, a pet’s health care and long term needs can set the owner back big bucks in the long run.
If your pet becomes ill or regularly has to have allergy medicine then the cost of owning a pet can quickly get out of hand. The way to protect yourself against the high pet health care cost is to plan ahead and get pet insurance to help cover those unexpected costs. If you haven’t taken your pet to the veterinarian lately then you might be met with a shock when you get the bill. A serious injury or illness can quickly cost thousands of dollars. Owning a pet can become very expensive very fast.
High Cost of Owning a Pet
The pet insurance business has been growing recently because of the growing pet healthcare cost and there are at least 19 providers that offer up to 81 different policies. There are three different basic policy types:
“Accident only” is the most basic and it generally covers automobile injuries, burns and snake bites. You have to be careful and read the fine print because not every kind of accident is covered and different policies eliminate different accidents.
The next type of policy is “accident and illness”. This will include the basic accident coverage but will also include illnesses like cancer, infectious diseases, hereditary conditions and skin conditions. The fine print here might exclude diseases that are preventable.
Finally there are the “comprehensive” policies which include the accident and illness coverage but also include behavioural therapy, de-sexing, dental and vaccinations. The costs go up on all of the policies as the pet gets older.
Pets where the breed is known tend to be cheaper and cats seem to always be cheaper as well. Some breeds do cost more than others and the cheapest policy of all is for a regular domestic cat. Having a pet is a great source of joy for most families and taking the step to getting insurance is a great way to reduce the overall cost of owning a pet.
