Sick Pets and $$$

[Jan Carr]

How much would you spend if your dog got sick?

Here's a piece from the NY Times, based on a recent phone survey
conducted by the Associated Press and Petside.com.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/

June 9, 2010, 2:03 pm
How Much Would You Spend on a Sick Pet?
By TARA PARKER-POPE

Jessica Brandi Lifland for The New York Times. Many pet owners worry
they won’t be able to afford veterinary care for their pet.

How much is your pet’s health worth to you?

Most pet owners say that cost is a factor when deciding whether to
seek medical care for a sick dog or cat. And about 40 percent worry
they won’t be able to afford care when it’s needed, according to a new
survey from the Associated Press and the Web site <Petside.com>.

Most pet owners (62 percent) said they would likely pay for pet health
care even if the cost reached $500, but that means more than a third
of pet owners said that might be too much to spend on an animal.

What if the bill for veterinary care reached $1,000? Fewer than half
of pet owners said they were very likely to spend that much at the
vet. Only a third said it was very likely they would pay a $2,000 vet
bill.

Once the cost of saving a sick pet reached $5,000, most pet owners
said they would stop treatment. Only 22 percent said they were very
likely to pick up $5,000 in veterinary costs to treat a sick dog or
cat.

The poll, conducted in April, involved phone interviews with 1,112 pet
owners around the country.

Cat owners were more likely to quit on a pet sooner than dog owners.
Among those unwilling to spend $500 on veterinary care, 26 percent
owned dogs and 54 percent had cats. But once costs exceeded $500,
there was no difference between dog and cat owners and their
willingness to seek medical care for an animal.

Notably, income level didn’t seem to influence feelings about how much
to spend on veterinary care. Pet owners who earned less than $50,000
answered about the same as those earning more money.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/