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NAPHIA Report: Perceptions of "Pet Insurance" among veterinarians and pet owners

By: Ian Parker, VP, Marketing

Many of you might be familiar with NAPHIA, an organization of pet health insurance members which works collaboratively toward establishing and maintaining universal and professional standards for terminology, best practices, quality, and ethics in the pet health industry.

Over the last couple of years, NAPHIA has put a huge amount of resources into studying the perception of pet health insurance among pet owners and veterinarians. The study was published at the 2016 AVMA Conference. We wanted to share some of the findings with you, and encourage you to read the full study at your convenience.

Study details: 

  • 505 veterinarians, US & Canada
  • 626 pet owners, US & Canada

To start, we’ll take a look at the importance of the veterinary recommendation.

Question to Veterinarians: What do you expect from pet health insurance?

Top 3 Answers:

  1. Produces increased compliance on recommendations by current clients
  2. Increases purchase of veterinary medical services
  3. Produces increased expenditures on pets by current clients

Trupanion is meeting these expectations, based on our own study of pet owners with and without Trupanion coverage, where we found:

  • Insured clients visit their veterinarian more often than uninsured clients
  • Insured clients spend twice as much as uninsured clients

Here is what NAPHIA found as the difference in the amount spent on vet bills between insured and uninsured pets:

NAPHIA infographic showing the amount spent on enrolled pets vs non-enrolled pets, the enrolled pets amount spent is higher
The key takeaway here is that a strong veterinary recommendation for medical insurance for pets leads to more insured clients, which leads to more revenue for the practice.
Next, let’s look at what NAPHIA found regarding some of the common myths about “pet insurance”.

Myth: Pet owners are not looking for a recommendation by their veterinarian, they want to do their own research and make their own decision.

Truth: The top two reasons pet owners enrolled in pet health insurance were 1) a recommendation by a veterinarian; and 2) a recommendation by the veterinary staff.

This is excellent information to share with veterinarians who feel strongly about letting the pet owner make their own decision. Pet owners respect their veterinarian and are looking for that trusted recommendation.
 
Myth: Veterinarians don’t want any part of pet health insurance.

Truth: 56% of veterinarians wish all their clients had pet health insurance!

The majority of veterinarians surveyed prefer their clients were insured.
NAPHIA pie chart showing that 56% of veterinarians wish all pets had pet health insurance, 41% makes no difference whether clients have pet health insurance or not, and 3% of veterinarians wishing that no clients had pet health insurance
If you are a veterinarian that wishes all your clients were insured, we would love to talk to you! Our Trupanion Partners Program has proven to lead to a higher insured client base and increased revenue to the practice. Give us a call or email us – we’re open to discussion!

The information within this newsletter contains content that is current as of the publication date. Any information contained herein may have changed since the publication date. If you have questions, please contact VeterinaryUpdate@Trupanion.com.
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