“While some pet insurance policies may explicitly allow monthly premiums to increase based on a pet’s age-thus warning consumers from the outset of the potential for a spike down the road-Healthy Paws’ policies do not,” according to the Healthy Paws class action lawsuit. The plaintiff argues that suddenly, monthly premiums for pet insurance may skyrocket to hundreds of dollars per month, which drastically affects the cost-benefit calculation. The Healthy Pets class action lawsuit states that pet insurance companies drastically increase the cost of monthly premiums when the consumers need the insurance the most: as their pets age. “Many consumers, when presented with the possibility of securing the most advanced veterinary care for their pet in the event of a future illness for only $30 or $40 per month, believe that pet insurance is a good deal,” argues Benanav. In addition, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America has recently stated that the purchase of pet insurance is “often motivated by a combination of love and fear,” which puts the purchaser in a vulnerable situation, according to the class action lawsuit.Īlso, the plaintiff maintains that the cost-benefit analysis of whether an individual should choose pet insurance is based on the cost of monthly premiums. The plaintiff cites statistics by the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, which states that more than 2 million pets were insured at the end of 2017.
“More and more, Americans regard their pets as members of their family and more and more, Americans are demanding similar services for their pets as they do for their family members-and that includes health insurance,” claims the Healthy Paws class action lawsuit. The Healthy Paws class action lawsuit argues that the insurance company has earned millions of dollars in extra profits by unrightfully increasing the costs of the monthly premiums. He says if he knew that Healthy Paws would be taking Mali’s age and other factors into consideration to increase their rates, he would not have signed up for this particular insurance policy.īenanav alleges that the age of his pet is not a factor related to veterinary medicine, and therefore Healthy Paws should not have used that information to increase insurance policies. The plaintiff claims that he expected his insurance premiums to rise according to inflation. The plaintiff alleges this amount is well above the overall average costs of veterinary medicine for that time period.Ī Nationwide Purdue Veterinary Price Index from 2019 notes that from 2014 to 2018, the cost of veterinary medicine increased only 21 percent, which is less than the cost of the premium set by Healthy Paws.īenanav says Mali is now 13-years-old and he is unable to switch insurance companies, because the dog has aged out of most policies.
Thereafter, the premiums increased to $55.61 in 2018, to $69.67 in 2019, and finally to $104.50 in 2020, according to the Healthy Paws class action lawsuit.īenanav claims his pet insurance policy increased more than 300 percent over the course of seven years. The plaintiff states that in 2016, the monthly premiums increased from $39.03 to $44.80.
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