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Employers offer pet insurance
Los Angeles (ap) — Melissa Yoakam jokingly calls her dog Shadow her “car payment” because she pays $250 a month for the 12-year-old’s cancer treatments. She’d pay far less if she had pet insurance, but she didn’t take advantage of it when Shadow was younger and when he got cancer it was too late. She uses her experience to convince colleagues not to make the same mistake. “I should have it but I don’t,” she lamented. Yoakam is well-versed in the subject as benefits manager at Chipotle Mexican Grill, which is one of a growing number of companies that discount and subsidize pet insurance as a perk to workers. The nation’s oldest and largest pet insurer, Veterinary Pet Insurance, offers policies at one in three Fortune 500 companies, as well as 3,400 other companies and associations across the nation, said company president Scott Liles. Other organizations, such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also offer insurance through employers, but the number of people who sign up remains small. California-based VPI has 61 percent of the niche market with only a half million pets insured nationwide. While that represents a tiny fraction Special to the Journal-World of the estimated 165 million pets in the United States, it has huge growth potenCAT AS ART. TEDY IS AN 11-YEAR-OLD PERSIAN CAT who tial as America’s animal affection fuels new belongs to Ronda Miller. Got a picture for Pet Post? Bring in or mail pet products, services and a higher level of a Pet Post photo and some information about your pet to the JournalWorld, 645 N.H., Lawrence, KS 66044 or email it to go@ljworld.com. health care.
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