The Second Pet Gets Insurance

Last week, a friend of a friend noticed that one of her dogs seemed to be in discomfort, so she gave him three Motrin.  Big mistake. Within a few hours she was at the emergency vet clinic where she was asked if she was willing to pay for surgery to try and save her dog’s life. Two days and another surgery later, the dog passed away. The owner had run up over $6,000 in vet bills.

The very next day, the owner bought VPI pet insurance for her second dog.

She mentioned that before her first dog got sick, she had no idea that vet care could be so expensive.

This is an example of the “Second Pet” theory of pet insurance marketing.  This theory (which I just made up, but is backed by anecdotal evidence) predicts that most pet parents won’t get pet insurance until an uninsured pet runs up a very large vet bill, thereby prompting the owner to “discover” pet insurance and then buy it for the second (and any other) pet in the family.

The Second Pet theory is good news for pet insurance companies. As vet costs continue to rise, more pet parents will encounter steep vet bills and ultimately stumble upon pet insurance as a useful tool to help them manage their costs.