I don’t have pet health insurance because while I love my pets, there is an upper limit to the money I am willing to spend to save their already short lives. Fundamentally, to me, they are animals. There is also the fact that highly expensive surgeries and procedures also often go hand in hand with making my pet miserable when they can’t understand what is happening to them and so it's often merciful as well as good on the pocketbook to just let them go.

I have a line for vet emergencies in my budget just like I have lines for every other kind of emergency. It’s not at max right now but I’ll probably max it at around $3000 which is a bit more than I paid once to put my cat in ICU overnight for something we knew we could likely fix with a short hospital stay.

We have a vet category, although that is mainly used for well visits and vaccinations for our cats. When one of our cats needed emergency care in the past we have pulled from our emergency fund. I suppose we should set up a pet emergency category to avoid that situation in the future. We do not have pet insurance because I've been told by friends and relatives that are vets that it's a waste of money. 

I bought insurance before Bowie even came home with us.  Unfortunately, I'v found that insurers have lots of ways to wriggle out of any kind of payment whilst simultaneously increasing premiums by 30% per year, and decided, after they diagnosed Bowie with a 'whole-body illness' following a prescription of eye cream, that we will be ceasing pet insurance and self-insuring with a large "Bowie Medical category".  We've also had serious discussions about our 'Cut Off Point', the point at which we would stop seeking medical intervention.  For us, this occurs if an accident would result in lots of surgery and/or recovery/rehabilitation.  We want Bowie to have a good life and don't consider 'living in pain in the hopes of having a better life' to be part of it.  (Totally personal choice, to each his own.)

We have pet insurance for 3, a dog and 2 cats, and ave had pet insurance since the day we got them.  they are essentially healthy, but that could change. the pet insurance has saved us thousands more than we have paid over the past 9 years for the dog and 2 years for the cats.  

So... I have category line item in the budget for pets and a line item under that for Wellness,  and a second group line item  for Miscellaneous food and litter, meds, toys etc. that we have every month, by varies.   The wellness is drafted so that is what we know we are going to pay and it covers all vet  visits, all shots and well care like blood work and teeth cleaning and originally covered his neutering.  

Meds  and other testing like for one of the carts heart murmur test, and allergy tests, etc.are discounted if there is an infection or  something requiring additional.   To cover that I have a 3rd  group line item for Emergencies and we budget an additional $150  a month for those random expenses .  Since our vet is open the same as the store hours, we never have to pay for weekend or evening extra costs.  

If we don't use the $150 for the Emergencies group under Pets, I move it to a sinking fund savings account where it is accounted for and budged under that account.  We pay expenses costing under $150 in a month with current money,  If it goes over and we can't cover it from the Miscellaneous category, we move it in from savings and pay the bill.   We plan to max out the emergencies group in the sinking funds at $3000.00.  If an emergency is more than$3000.00,  then we will determine where to pull the excess from, or make a hard decision about life expectancy with treatment and quality life.  Hope this helps. 

I have pet category that is used for all things related to two German Shepards and one “came with the house” cat. Like others, I contribute to it monthly and have a cap set. I’ve had the category since starting YNAB, but the cap has only been in place for a few months.

last fall when the six year old shepherd developed a limp I used a credit card with 0% interest for one year to pay for her bilateral knee surgery. The initial vet and surgeon visits plus xrays came out of the budget.

I'm a veterinarian.

When I speak to my clients about pet insurance, I encourage them to look at the options for insurance. The deductible and co-pay amounts vary depending on the company and the policy. Also, insurers will put lifetime limits on policies and discount policies may have more exclusions.

I tell them that an emergency where a pet requires surgery or a short hospital stay that could be life-saving might cost up to five thousand dollars. Some of the more high-tech specialty surgeries and diagnostics can get to the low five figures fairly quickly, but those things are rare. And then I tell them if you want to be able to make those choices and you don't have an emergency fund, savings or credit card that you're comfortable using, then you should consider insurance, but to be aware that most companies reimburse the client after the expense is paid.

I know in Europe a larger proportion of pet owners have health insurance for their pets.

From my point of view as a vet, if a pet is insured it can help to make some of the decisions easier. I always offer clients the best options for care first, and if there is insurance the budget is less of a concern. It also causes me to have to fill out forms (which I dislike) and deal with the insurance companies, who seem to think faxes are the limit of technology. But anything that makes it easier to help my patients is welcome.

That said, I'm thrilled to see pet categories in the budget - your pets are lucky, YNABbers!

My cat has two line items of her very own. I sort my True Expenses by the ones with due dates that I know and the ones with dates that, by their very nature, will be "surprises". 

Under the predictable true expenses, I have a sinking fund with the costs of her annual shots and exam. Under the unpredictable true expenses I drop $50 monthly, just like I drop $75 monthly toward unexpected auto repairs. In the event it's not sufficient, I do have an account I can access which offers me 90 days same as cash for vet bills. If even that weren't sufficient, my cat and my car are the two places that I will, if necessary, unashamedly hit up the Bank of Dad for a no interest loan. I don't like to do it, but I will if need be. I don't charge my own medical bills, because I'm insured with a flexible spending account, so most providers are willing to wait a bit and work with me if I need a little extra time. Veterinarians don't generally have that luxury, so her bills get paid right away.

I have a category for my pets. It includes regular expenses (food, litter) and vet visits. We utilize the average spend for most categories and let it rollover. I hit one year with YNAB in February, so we'll see if I have enough going into the vet this year. I find the idea of potentially splitting the category into three interesting: regular expenses, annual vet, unexpected vet. But don't know if I'll go forward with it.

A few years ago, my cat needed to have $1,000 unexpected stuff done due to a blocked bladder. We signed up for CareCredit, received 24 months of free financing, and paid it off early. TBH, that's my back up plan if we don't have enough - our CareCredit card.

I largely agree with  WordTenor that pets are animals and we should use common sense regarding the money spent to prolong their lives.  That being said, my wife and I have had 2 pets where we have spent an unreasonable amount of money to try and prolong their lives, and I am the one that is largely to blame for that.  Because of that, we do have a pet insurance plan for our current dog.  I decided to do that because at the very least it puts a boundary around the amount of money that will be spent.  Our dog does require some medication, and in the past couple of years we have met the deductible and started getting some money in return.  For our household I think that the cost/benefit analysis works but your mileage may vary.  We budget $150 a month for pet care and the insurance premium is included in that amount.  Every once in a while something more expensive comes up and we have to whack a mole from somewhere else but it is usually adequate.

While I also believe pets are animals, they don't understand sickness so I have a low threshold for torturing to fix something, we are fortunate to have good pet insurance through my wife's work.  I save the deductible for our insurance in an account and would tap the emergency fund as needed.  

Thanks for bumping this thread!  I lost a 16 yr old Aussie at the end of 2019, and over his last year he ended up with about $12k in expenses.  It all had to come out of every emergency category possible.  Pretty much everything we had "saved" to get ahead for the year.  But I considered it necessary as the initial surgery did give him another happy year, and at the end, the expense was smaller and his suffering was brief.  

Last March we adopted a big 4 month old mutt, and I did a lot of research into Insurance.  We also have an 8 year old smaller mutt.  Obviously, I realized that I have to make a better long term plan for saving up for these dogs into their old age.  I decided to go with at least a year of catastrophic insurance for them, especially since with the new rescue dog it was impossible to know much health history.  I did get the Embark tests run though, and that looked good!  I figure premiums will increase and I won't keep the insurance very long.  

So I am doing exactly what you recommend.  I am saving more than the premium each month, using a little formula I made up of $500 per dog per year for wellness, and then adding $100 per year based on the pet's age.  And then at the end of the year just continuing to roll over what is left.  I'm hoping it will continue to build as they age and if there's a gap I will of course cover it from a lower priority category.

Thank you so much for the education you've provided us!  It's an important topic for many of us!