Health insurance for people is kind of a no brainer. Some people skip it while they’re in their twenties, some people who are rich don’t bother, but the rest of us end up getting health insurance, whether it’s through your job or you pay for it out of pocket. It might seem like a no-brainer to get health insurance for your pet, because you have insurance too. Is it really worth the cost, though?

One catch with pet insurance is that it doesn’t cover as much as regular health insurance does. A standard plan will generally only cover half of your expenses for a several hundred dollar vet bill. Pet insurance for a medium sized dog costs anywhere from $25 for $50 (or more) a month. Ten years of coverage is $4800. My last dog, who lived for 12 years, never cost us $4800 in vet bills. Even my cat that had several urinary tract infections and we had to put down at 8 years old only came close, but not over, that amount. If we figure that the insurance would pay for half of the vet costs for my cat, we wouldn’t have been paying any less money.

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