(Bloomberg Business) -- Americans are spending more than ever on their pets. The tally for 2014 is an estimated $58.5 billion, according to the American Pet Products Association. After food, the biggest amount—$15.2 billion—went to veterinary care. With MRIs, sonograms, and chemotherapy all on the treatment menu, the health costs for many pets can top what well-insured humans pay for their own health care.
That prospect has helped the pet insurance industry grow an average 13% every year since 2009. The number of insured pets rose 14.6% in 2013, to more than 1 million, according to the most recent figures from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA).
The nation's largest and oldest pet insurer, Nationwide-owned Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), administers 525,000 policies, more than double what it wrote a decade ago. And on Feb. 12, the fourth-quarter earnings of pet insurer Trupanion (TRUP) showed a 29% year-over-year jump in pets enrolled, to 218,684, and average monthly adjusted revenue per pet that rose 4%, to $44.27.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
