Rising pet insurance

What Happened

The cost of vet insurance has dramatically increased in recent years. A lot of owners have to deal with increasing excesses, lower coverage or higher monthly rates. At the same time veterinary care has become a lot more advanced, so therefore more costly.

This means that some pet owners are cancelling their current insurance or choosing not to cover their animals with insurance. Vets are witnessing an increase in cases where owners are unable to pay for the best care possible, which can result in financial strain, challenging discussions and moral dilemmas. For many clients this leaves a gap between what is financially realistic and what is best for their animal.

Analysis

A common concern across MMIs is equitable access to veterinary care. When preparing, consider:

• Animal welfare is being impacted by the growing costs of insurance.
• When making cost based judgements the vet must offer alternative options.
• How ethical dilemmas are increased, like under treatment, delayed treatment and convenience euthanasia, by this financial strain.
• How this affects the field widely, such as vet burn out.

Strong ethical reasoning and a sense of reality is shown by evaluating these issues.