Recently, the dog bite incident of a girl in Chongzhou, Sichuan Province has aroused widespread concern. Some netizens called on pet owners to purchase pet liability insurance to add a guarantee for possible pet injuries. So, is pet insurance worth buying? What are the circumstances under which I can make a claim? The reporter interviewed industry insiders about this.
In the list of prohibited dogs in many places across the country, the Rottweiler dog that hurts people this time is on the list. This means that in these prohibited areas, owners cannot insure Rottilners against pet liability. For example, a pet liability insurance with a total death/disability insured amount of up to 10,13 yuan reminds the policyholder in its terms that the insured pet breed should be a dog or cat pet that is legally raised and can be clearly identified; However, it should be noted that Tibetan mastiffs, Afghan hounds, Soviet and Russian shepherds and other local laws and regulations prohibit the breeding of dog pets or cat pets that ordinary citizens are not covered. However, according to the Chengdu Dog Management Regulations issued <> years ago, Rottweilers are not on the prohibited list.
"Whether it is in the medical treatment of pets' diseases or attacks on people by pets, pet insurance has a sense of existence. In addition to pets attacking people, owners of large or strong dogs may also experience situations where their own dog bites someone else's dog. Pets are actually property rights in law, and insurance can compensate for this part of the property damage. Zhao Yiqiang, a senior pet doctor, said that many pet owners now have the awareness of buying insurance, and the market demand for pet insurance is quite rich. In addition to pet insurance, even some home insurance have added pet third-party protection liability to product design.
From the changes in the characteristics of the policyholder and the insured subject, we can glimpse the new trend of domestic pet breeding. According to the "2023 Pet Digital Insurance Industry Development Insight Trend White Paper" jointly released by ZhongAn Insurance and Ant Insurance, pet insurance on the Ant Insurance platform has maintained a growth rate of more than 80% for two consecutive years, while the "post-90s" and "post-95s" are the main forces of pet insurance insurance, accounting for more than 60%, showing a stronger awareness of risk protection. From the perspective of growth rate and insurance ratio, cat insurance policies have exceeded dog insurance policies for two consecutive years, accounting for more than 60% of insurance, and the popular types of insurance are third-party liability insurance and medical insurance.
In recent years, relying on the rapid growth of the pet industry and Internet platform traffic, this segment of pet insurance has entered the fast lane of vigorous development. The nose stripe recognition technology that can accurately identify pets has effectively improved the risk control of insurance products and lowered the product threshold, becoming an important technical support for the pet insurance industry. At the same time, some insurance products that serve subdivided scenarios or short-term needs have gradually emerged in the past two years, such as vaccine liability insurance, pet consignment insurance, and pet anesthesia accidental death insurance.
Many "shovel officers" will struggle with whether buying pet insurance is worth it. "For example, the same gastritis, to give a small dog like Teddy an imported antiemetic needle, a few tens of yuan can be done, the shovel officer can get very limited compensation." However, if it is a large dog such as Golden Retriever and Alaska, its weight of more than 30 kilograms increases the dose of drugs used by 10 times, and the price naturally increases by 10 times, and pet insurance is very cost-effective. Zhao Yiqiang said that the final compensation for the policyholder is to use the treatment cost minus the deductible and non-reimbursed over-the-counter drugs, and the remaining part is multiplied by the reimbursement ratio, so many pet owners will feel that "minor illnesses are not worth it, and major illnesses can indeed alleviate part of it." In addition, factors such as weight, age, and health status will affect the prevalence of pets and the cost of treatment, but at present, the premium is the same regardless of the size and breed of the pet. Obviously, pet insurance still lacks a differentiated pricing mechanism.
According to the White Paper, the number of pet owners in China increased to 7043.2706 million last year, and the size of the consumer market increased to 1.<> billion yuan, but the domestic pet insurance market is still in the early stage of development, and the overall penetration rate is less than <>%. Insufficient market competition has led to serious homogeneity of pet insurance, mainly concentrated in medical insurance, third-party liability insurance and other scenario service insurance; However, the homogeneity of secondary category products is serious, and few companies provide differentiated protection for specific varieties, diseases, and age groups.
"Shovel officers" need to pay attention to the fact that when purchasing pet insurance, they should fully understand the terms of deductible, waiting period, coverage ratio, designated hospital and so on. "Try to collect relevant documents at the same time as medical treatment to avoid unnecessary disputes when paying." In addition, surgical expenses such as treatment of congenital diseases and sterilization are generally not covered by pet insurance. Zhao Yiqiang said. (Economic Daily Reporter Yang Ran)