Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Pets

Join our community on the Pet forum to discuss anything related to pets.

Original poster

To think pet insurance for cats and dogs should be a legal requirement?

38 replies

Lovemusic82 · 28/10/2023 15:45

I’m seeing so many ‘go fund me’ posts on Facebook because someone’s beloved pet need surgery/has been in an accident or needs medication. Vet bills are extortionate these days and people don’t seem to realise that if their pet gets sick they may not have the funds to pay for it. Surely as a responsible pet owner you insure you pet as soon as you get it? Maybe it should be a legal requirement? why should your friends and family have to cough up to pay your vets bills because you didn’t get around to sorting insurance?

OP posts:
FallingAutumnLeaf · 28/10/2023 16:02

YABU.
We don't insure our cat. We have funds for several 1000 of vet bills if required. We will take the risk, thank you.
However, I do believe all pets should be chipped.

Lizzieregina · 28/10/2023 16:07

You don’t have to cough up for someone else’s pet.

I paid all the vet bills for my dog and wouldn’t have had him if I couldn’t pay.

And I don’t know about the UK but in the US pet insurance can be extremely inadequate and not cover loads of things, so essentially useless in many cases, and expensive.

CesareBorgia · 28/10/2023 16:09

It depends on your financial circumstances. Also, an important difference is that dogs have third party liability, whereas cats don't.

For dogs, all but the super-rich should have third party cover (which is normally very cheap - £20 our so annually) as costs if your dog caused an accident could be astronomical.

Otherwise, for medical cover, it's possible to cover this with savings.

almondseagull · 28/10/2023 16:09

No one is making you pay.

I've had 5 cats so far, first 2 no issues until time to put down, 3rd one car accident, £500, next 2 nothing

Why should I pay thousands in insurance when I don't need it.

I pay car, and house insurance, but not cat

gotomomo · 28/10/2023 16:10

My dog insurance has now increased to £160 a month, lots of people can't afford this!

EmptyYoghurtPot · 28/10/2023 16:11

YABU
No one is forcing you to contribute to another’s Go fund me. We have 5 cats - insuring them all would cost more than the vets bills would be if one was ill or injured. You don’t legally have to have personal or home insurance- it’s a choice.

NoTouch · 28/10/2023 16:15

You don't need to contribute.

It is the owners choice whether to insure, save, or PTS. Not very palatable that an otherwise healthy animal might be PTS due to financial constraints but the main priority is the animal does not suffer.

Flossflower · 28/10/2023 16:16

Pet insurance is a relatively new thing and I am sure, because they know insurances will pay out, to blame for vet fees being so expensive.
Years ago when your pet got very ill and would only get better by expensive vet treatments, it was put down.
While to some this might sound horrific, in some cases it was much kinder to the pet. The pet doesn’t understand why they are going through all the pain.

Levriers · 28/10/2023 16:17

You are being ridiculous. I have plenty of money saved over the years for vet emergencies & have cancelled the insurance for this reason

CurlsnSunshinetime4tea · 28/10/2023 16:19

Insurance is a scam, better to keep your money/whatever payments you would make aside yourself.
Ditto people begging for money due to a sick or injured pet, they probably don’t own one and may not even live in your time zone…

Godzillaisjusthangry · 28/10/2023 16:23

All dogs should be required to be covered by 3rd party liability insurance incase they cause injury or harm to others. If people can't afford this they shouldn't own a dog.
A dog, like a car can cause injury to others.

Medical cover is up to the owner.

Also, all dogs need to be licensed annually. That way greater dog control can be funded and more litter bins for waste provided.

Fines for fouling need to be on par with Singapore.

Snowdropanddiddums · 28/10/2023 16:29

Would a vet really have an otherwise healthy animal PTS if the owners couldn’t pay?! Would the pet not be taken in by the dogs trust etc?

StEtienne93 · 28/10/2023 16:31

There was a time when I would agree with you. However, I adopted my dog 7 years ago, good insurance cover was £30pm. It went up bit by bit to £71pm and I still paid. Then it suddenly skyrocketed to £153! I shopped around, cheapest I could get was £132 and after splitting up from my exh I couldn't afford it. I had to cancel. I would struggle to rehome my dog as she's quite old now and it's not fair to rehome her as she's my shadow and we're very attached to one another. I am lucky that my dad was willing to pay for her to have a major op a few months ago, because he's fond of her and knows that she's my everything.

Paddestow · 28/10/2023 16:33

YABVU

CloudyAgain · 28/10/2023 16:33

We have 6 pets and the insurance would be stupid.

We can fund it ourselves and made a conscious decision.

In the past 10 years we have paid out about 8K. Still less than if we had to have insurance they would argue about anyway.

WonderingWanda · 28/10/2023 16:34

I've been paying pet insurance for my cat for the last 4 years and so far it hasn't coughed up for anything he has needed treatment for. I should have just put money in savings.

RedRiverShore4 · 28/10/2023 16:34

Obviously if people have the funds then insurance might not be wanted, some prefer to pay as they go along, it's the ones with no insurance and no funds that are the problem and try to cadge off others.

hattie43 · 28/10/2023 16:35

I don't have pet insurance but I can afford to pay any amount needed .
I agree though that people should think very carefully about not having ins if you have no savings for surgeries etc or on going health needs .

RNBrie · 28/10/2023 16:39

Ahhh this is a really complex issue. The cost for vet treatment in the UK has risen dramatically in the past few years (now 3 times more expensive than France for instance)

The rise is partly driven by the popularity of pet insurance which gives vets no incentive to keep costs fair. It's also driven by a small number of huge companies taking over all independent practices which has removed any form of competition.

There was a good article about it in the Times a couple of months ago. I don't think mandating insurance will solve the problem and I also feel really sorry for people who don't realise how much vets cost now and get a horrible surprise when their beloved pet gets sick.

TheGriffle · 28/10/2023 16:39

Even if you have insurance, like we do, our vets wanted paying up front for the £2500 it cost to have our cats leg amputated. Thank god for family and the credit card that’s all I can say. We finally got it back from the insurance about a 3 weeks later.

Paperbagsaremine · 28/10/2023 16:40

More practically, how would this be enforced.
I can't help wondering if it would end up like the TV licence fee, another legal burden for the poor and disorganised.

My own experience - over 25+ years - was that even old dogs bounced back pretty quickly from treatments the vets recommended, including major surgery and chemo, BUT that's a very small sample in the grand scheme of things.

lightinthebox · 28/10/2023 16:41

It’s all well and good saying ‘I have savings and insurance is a scam’ but that’s not the situation for everyone. Complicated life changing surgery and care can be £10k+ and that’s the type of costs where some owners will have to choose to PTS without insurance.

But yes. I’ve seen people pay thousands of pounds for a puppy with no consideration of ongoing costs.

TerfTalking · 28/10/2023 16:43

FallingAutumnLeaf · 28/10/2023 16:02

YABU.
We don't insure our cat. We have funds for several 1000 of vet bills if required. We will take the risk, thank you.
However, I do believe all pets should be chipped.

Same here.

I used to insure my cats, then stopped and saved the premiums, it didn't take long to have saved a few grand.

Now I don't even save the premiums, but we've paid the mortgage off and adult DC have left home and the cats are cheaper than they were.

AndThenTheWolvesCame · 28/10/2023 16:43

When you have a young animal the insurance quotes are very reasonable but as your pet ages it gets ridiculously expensive.

My DDog is 12 and had spinal surgery age 5. The premiums climbed from £25pm to over £200pm about 4 years ago. We absolutely couldn’t keep up with that kind of financial outlay.

Even trying to get a policy that doesn’t cover the existing condition is wildly expensive. After comparing the cost of treatments with the policy premiums, it’ll be cheaper to use savings.

Also, the policy we originally had covered up to £3k for surgery which was sufficient at the time Ddog needed it. However the same surgery is now around £6k, so our policy would have only covered half the cost. I often wonder whether some people have the insurance but are trying to scrape enough to pay the shortfall.

PinkflowersWhiteBerries · 28/10/2023 16:44

Liability cover yes. Heath insurance - personal circumstances dictate. I have one insured , one no longer insured. When the insurance company asked for £250 per month for £7k annual cover it made no sense.
But I am older and have savings . I cannot imagine asking strangers to pay for my choices.