Employers offer health benefits - for pets !?!?

The cost of health care in America continues to rise. The national dialogue on health care has polarized into a free-market vs. universal single-payer debate. Yet more employers are expanding health care options, for pets that is.

This article from the Puget Sound Business Journal tells of this growing trend

"Though pet insurance is just a small market now, industry experts say it could grow substantially. Of an estimated 69 million pet-owning households in the U.S, less than 2 percent own pet insurance, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The organization expects the market for pet insurance to grow 25 percent next year. "

If more employers offer and pay for pet insurance it will surely grow. As will the cost of pet health care and in turn pet insurance itself. Just like the human version; if someone else is paying for it why not have a few extra tests and that previously out of the question procedure?

At a time when employers are sharing more and more of the price increases with employees by way of higher deductibles and higher co-pays some misguided companies are willing to go down this slippery slope for pets, for property.

Its really calls into question priorities.