How to choose a dog and cat policy

There are as many as 65 million pets in Italian homes. The count comes from the Assalco - Zoomark Report. Of these, dogs and cats number almost 19 million. A market that is growing and needs protection. As a result, the offer of pet policies has also exploded in recent years: a recent survey by Ivass, the insurance authority that oversees the market, surveyed and analysed over eighty policies offered by 32 companies. In particular, there are 58 policies in which pet cover is combined with other types of risk (56 home and family policies and 2 travel policies), while 23 policies are so-called 'stand alone' policies, i.e. expressly designed with pet solutions only. The main covers offered by these policies are reimbursement or indemnification of veterinary expenses; reimbursement of expenses arising from civil liability for any damage caused to third parties by the animal; assistance services, including when travelling and coverage of legal protection expenses.

It starts with basic formulas (the cheapest) to which accessory packages can be added (some groups go so far as to pay for the physiotherapist). As always in the insurance industry, basically the protection obtained is a matter of budget. Policies start from packages costing 17 euros per month to over 100. It should be noted that there are also ongoing promotional campaigns such as that of Unipol, which until the end of June 2025 provides a 50 per cent discount on the premium. "Companies that have been on the market for a few years, such as ours, which has sold around 57 thousand policies since 2020, are starting to have enough information to assess whether to switch from a flat price (i.e. almost the same for all pet) to more dynamic packages that take into account other tariff factors," explains Simone Giancotta, Innovation Manager of ConTe.it, the insurance brand of the Admiral Group, which recently announced a strategic partnership with Baboop, an independent insurance broker specialising in tailored pet policies (with 20,000 policies brokered in the last four years).

Thanks to the data, selection is also on the increase: according to market observers, the most sought-after target group for insurance companies is puppies (over the canonical 3 months). The lowest premiums are in fact offered for the 3-5 year age bracket, while beyond that age the price of offers tends to rise. Beyond the age of 7-8 years, some companies no longer offer cover, while others only continue to cover pets with policies that have been active for some time. From what is reported to Plus24, companies are also starting to lower their maximum sums: for example, for surgical operations there are some operators who have reduced the reimbursement of expenses down to EUR 500, a much smaller figure than the market average of a few months ago, which was EUR 2,000. In short, the deck is beginning to shorten and, bearing in mind that the average claim is EUR 700, one must read the contracts carefully to avoid finding oneself uncovered with solutions that may seem cheap to sign up for, but which have severe reimbursement limitations. Again due to the fact of being able to count on a data base that allows us to know the claims history of animals, some companies are beginning to exclude (i.e. no longer insure for medical and veterinary expenses) certain breeds of dogs that are particularly prone to diseases or pathologies that require treatment and interventions: this is the case, for example, of bulldogs

French, dachshunds and labradors, but the list may grow in the future.