How much would you pay to save your fur baby’s life? 

According to a 2021 Budget Direct survey, almost half of us would be willing to shell out $10,000 of our hard-earned cash to save a pet. However, Southern Cross Pet Insurance general manager Anthony McPhail says many pet owners simply don’t have that kind of money on hand. 

‘In our own New Zealand survey a few years back, it’s at the $1,000 mark people start to feel like the vet bills are beyond their means,’ he says. 

iSelect says the average cost of a routine visit to the vet in Australia is A$397 for dogs and A$273 for cats. Even relatively common medical problems, including skin allergies and infected cuts, can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in treatment costs. 

Given how much we love our pets — Asia Pacific has some of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world — pet insurance seems like a no-brainer. And yet even in Japan, the APAC country with the highest pet insurance penetration, only 12 per cent of pet owners have cover. In Australia and New Zealand, levels stand at around 6 or 7 per cent, while penetration is less than 1 per cent in most South-East Asian countries. 

Why aren’t more pet owners signing up to protect their furry family members?

What is pet insurance? 

‘If I talk to my marketing team, they say pet owners simply don’t realise that pet insurance is an option,’ says Southern Cross Pet Insurance’s McPhail. ‘Raising product awareness is the biggest job to be done.’

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools for pet insurers. Many first-time pet owners simply aren’t aware of how much vet visits cost, and even experienced pet owners may not know about all the sophisticated — and expensive — treatments now available to ensure pets live longer, healthier lives.

Once people know about pet insurance, then common insurance barriers — exclusions, product costs and complicated, sometimes paper-based claims processes — become the issue.

Kevin Hoong is the co-founder and CEO of Oyen Pet Insurance in Malaysia, a digital-first insurance and pet wellness platform that was launched in April 2021. Oyen customers sign up and manage their cover and claims online. 

‘The reason Oyen was founded is because we saw pet owners weren’t having a good experience with traditional insurance companies,’ says Hoong. ‘I think the majority of pet owners are millennials, and millennials don’t want to fill in forms anymore, and they don’t want to talk to an agent anymore.’ 

Hoong says Oyen focuses on trust, transparency and simplicity. ‘How transparent are you in communicating what’s covered and what’s not covered? We have got rid of all the insurance jargon, and then we’ve tied everything together with technology.’

More than a pet

Aiding growth in the pet insurance market is the pet humanisation trend. Says Hoong:

‘More and more people treat their pets as family members. In some developed countries such as Taiwan and Japan, there are more pets than children under the age of 12.’ 

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