We love our pets. If you think about it, they are extensions of the family. Having pets take on lots of responsibility. We know what having children can cost, but pets can cost a lot too! Pet insurance is one of the fastest-growing voluntary employee benefits, one in three Fortune 500 companies now offer pet insurance. More than 3,800 companies and organizations have added Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI, a Nationwide Insurance company) to their benefits portfolio, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Deloitte LLP, Delta Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, T-Mobile, UPS, and Xerox, according to VPI Pet Insurance.
Some companies are even subsidizing a percentage of their employee’s cost. Several companies now paying as much as 100 percent of their employee’s pet insurance premiums (employees still owes additional costs, like co-pays). Here are some facts:
1) The North American pet insurance market was $940 million in 2016.
2) By 2019 the American pet insurance market will surpass $1.0 billion
So you have your family healthcare insurance and maybe some kind of vision and dental insurance to go along with this pet insurance. What are you going to do if a parent falls and breaks a hip? I’m sure they have insurance. But what are you going to do if you have to help them? Sure, you will take time off from work or stop by a few times a week after work to see how they are doing. What if you can’t?
The number of Americans age 55 and older is 60 million. That’s 21% of the total U.S. population. The projected growth in the next 20 years (2030) is somewhere around 107.6 million. That could be 31% of the population.
What are we doing about eldercare employee benefits?
The average annual cost of pet insurance in 2016 was $41/mo. The cost of eldercare benefits is $0.50/mo. WAIT! Nearly $500/year for pets vs. less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks/year for eldercare benefits? Why are there not more companies offering Eldercare Employee Benefits?
The top 3 reason why people buy pet insurance:
#1 “I want to make decisions about their pet’s health care without worrying about whether or not they can afford treatment”
#2 “I have been faced with expensive vet bills in the past and want to avoid them in the future”
#3 “Peace of mind”
Eldercare employee benefits provide the employee access to vetted professionals in all industries on a national level. It gets your loved one the right help so you can get back to work faster with less stress and provides you with peace of mind that your loved one is being taken care of.
The # 1 reason people don’t buy pet insurance is cost
Today over 68% of U.S. households own a pet. There are 40.4 million unpaid caregivers of adults ages 65 and older in the United States. Of that group, 9-in-10 are providing care for an aging loved one. On average, family caregivers are spending $7,000 in caregiving-related out-of-pocket expenses every year. The annual cost of owning a dog is $1,750 and the annual cost of owning a cat is $1,350. Which number would you like to reduce more?
If you want more information on eldercare employee benefits, please contact Senior Providers Network at contactus@seniorproviders.com