Some dog and cat owners are discovering that the health coverage for their animals is rising fast.
Many of the cat and dog owners in the United Kingdom are facing an unpleasant discovery when they renew their pet insurance policies, as they are discovering that the coverage is becoming much more costly.
At that rate of increase, the premiums are rising at approximately 15 times the rate of inflation. This is forcing many to have to make a difficult decision as to whether they should make financial sacrifices in order to continue the pet insurance policy, or take the gamble that the animal may not fall ill, or that if illness or injury does happen, the money will somehow become available.
The pet insurance industry is placing the blame on costly veterinary care developments.
Though these new advances in veterinary medicine have allowed pets to live longer, healthier lives with a better quality of life, it has also meant that pet insurance companies are being faced with larger claims. However, the figures that analysts have been revealing have shown that the premiums are still rising at a rate that is faster than the cost of the payouts being made.
The situation for policyholders becomes more complex as they attempt to perform pet insurance price comparisons with other insurers. If a claim has never been made, there may be some opportunities to find savings. However, once a claim has been made on a dog or cat policy, that health issue is labeled a “pre-existing condition”. Many providers will not offer coverage for pre-existing conditions, meaning that the owner is forced to stay with the original insurer and the rapidly increasing premiums, or choose to cancel the coverage altogether.
Though some advances have been made in the law of the U.K. that have helped to prevent these animals from becoming uninsurable just because claims had previously been made on their policies, there are many other issues that are still being faced by these animal owners. This has been compounded by the fact that though a policy may be sold by one company, they may be written by another. Only a small handful, such as PetPlan in the country actually underwrite their own pet insurance policies.