Why Were Pet Health Insurance Companies Started?
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Why Were Pet Health Insurance Companies Started?
In 1982 a company called Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) got the pet insurance industry started when they offered a pet insurance policy that was designed to protect the welfare and health of one of the most recognized pets in the world, Lassie. Pet health insurance companies started showing up as a result of pet owners not being able to afford to pay for treatments on their animals for curable conditions and had to opt to have their loved pets put to sleep. As a response to this a group of 700 vets banned together to form the first pet health insurance company known as VPI. It really wasn’t that far fetched of an idea, after all, people do consider their pets to be members of their families and people have health insurance so why shouldn’t our pets?
The first years for the pet health care industry were tough. It was hard to convince pet owners that it was actually beneficial to invest in their pets’ health. But eventually it did catch on, not only in the United States, but in England as well. Initially, the idea caught on with some of the larger insurance underwriters in the world and they started to offer pet insurance policies to their clients. One of the largest, the Fireman’s Fund, tried to sell pet insurance for a while but then proceeded to close their pet insurance division in 1994 because they were only able to sell about 10,000 policies in a 3 year period. At this time, the only company that survived was Veterinary Pet Insurance. They actually managed to survive when everyone else was closing their doors.
Procter & Gamble Gets Involved
After the collapse of most companies in the pet health insurance industry, Procter & Gamble decided to leverage their pet food division, Iams and they used it to get involved and support the pet health insurance industry. In 1997 Rhona Sutter started the Pet Protect Company and Russell Smith III started the Hartville Group. These two companies were founded by individuals with extensive knowledge and experience in the insurance industry and they utilized low key marketing strategies to make their companies a success. The idea of insuring your pet was soon catching on and spreading like wild fire throughout England and the USA.
Pet Protect eventually closed its doors in 2006 as VPI and the Hartville groups were quickly increasing their market share. In the past 30 years, very few companies have attempted to sell pet health insurance with many opening and closing their doors. However, today these companies are thriving and now more than ever pet owners see the significant value in making sure that they pets are covered with an adequate pet insurance policy.
