The PetHQ Newsletter

Trends & Reports

The Cost of Care: What's Driving Vet Prices, and What Owners Are Actually Doing

Updated July 30, 2026

A fluffy Pomeranian dog sitting on a veterinary exam table with two people's hands supporting it, faces out of frame
Tima Miroshnichenko / Pexels

By Morgan Reyes

The Short Answer

70% of pet owners have delayed or skipped a vet visit because of cost. That's a directly-verified figure from a 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. pet owners, not a rounded-up estimate.

QuestionFinding
Delayed/skipped care over cost70% of owners
Skipped vet-recommended care specifically76% of owners
Used credit/debt for vet costs37%
Cut back on groceries/utilities/bills for vet costs37%
US pet insurance penetration~5.46% dogs / ~2.04% cats, vs 95%/69% in Sweden

Why prices are rising

When the same survey asked owners what's actually driving rising vet costs, the answers split several ways rather than pointing to one cause: 46% blamed higher vet prices overall, 13% pointed to more advanced treatments now available, 12% to more frequent insurance claims, and 8% to fraud or overbilling, with 21% unsure.

The broader context matches what owners perceive. General inflation and rising labor costs are real cost drivers across veterinary practice, alongside a genuine factor that's easy to overlook: more sophisticated treatment options exist now than a decade ago, and better medicine costs more to deliver, not just a case of prices climbing for no reason.

What owners are actually doing about it

The delay/skip numbers are stark, and worth separating from each other. 70% of surveyed owners have delayed or skipped a vet visit specifically due to cost. A sharper cut of the same problem: 76% specifically skipped care their vet had actively recommended, not just a routine checkup they let slide.

The financial strain goes beyond delayed visits. 37% of owners have used credit or taken on debt to cover vet costs in the past year. A separate 37% have cut back on groceries, utilities, or other bills specifically to pay for their pet's care. Both figures come from the same 1,000-owner survey, conducted by Fractl on behalf of MetLife in October 2025.

A generational compounding pattern showed up too. 79% of Gen X owners and 70% of millennial owners said they'd avoided care specifically because they were already in debt, meaning existing debt from a prior vet bill is itself discouraging owners from the next necessary visit.

Is pet insurance the answer? The honest picture

Pet insurance is often presented as the clean fix, and the honest data doesn't support that framing. In the US, dogs are covered at roughly 5.46% and cats at just 2.04%, per the pet insurance industry's own trade association (NAPHIA), the most complete tracking of this figure that exists, even though it comes from the industry counting its own policyholders rather than an independent census. That's dramatically behind Sweden, the clearest contrast available: a 2025 peer-reviewed study put Swedish insurance coverage at 95% of dogs and 69% of cats.

The low US adoption isn't because insurance doesn't work; it's real structural friction, stacked several ways. There's no regulatory or lender mandate the way there is for auto or home insurance. Consumer awareness is genuinely low, and many owners misunderstand how it works, expecting something closer to human health insurance rather than the reimbursement-based model most pet policies actually use. Timing is a recurring problem too: many owners learn about pet insurance only after their pet already has a condition, which then gets excluded as pre-existing.

Even among owners who do have it, the value proposition isn't uncomplicated. 77% of insured pet owners said their premiums increased in the past year, and yet 84% still consider it worth it for the peace of mind. Both things are true at once: rising cost, and owners who still value it.

Worth saying plainly

There isn't a clean answer to rising vet costs, and pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone facing a real bill. 70% of owners have already delayed or skipped care over cost, more than a third have gone into debt or cut other expenses to cover it, and the product marketed as the solution, pet insurance, covers barely 5% of US dogs and 2% of cats for real structural reasons, not because it doesn't work. Knowing that honestly is more useful than a false reassurance that one product fixes it.

Bottom line: 70% of pet owners have delayed or skipped vet care over cost, and 37% have gone into debt or cut back on other essentials to cover it, per a directly-verified 2025 survey. Rising prices trace to a mix of general inflation, labor costs, and genuinely more advanced (and more expensive) treatment options than existed a decade ago. Pet insurance, often positioned as the fix, covers roughly 5.46% of US dogs and 2.04% of cats, far behind Sweden's 95%/69%, due to real structural barriers: no mandate, low awareness, and a common pre-existing-condition timing trap. The honest state of this problem doesn't have a single clean answer.

FAQ

How many pet owners delay or skip vet care because of cost?

70%, per a directly-verified 2025 survey of 1,000 owners. See the full breakdown above.

Why is veterinary care so expensive?

A mix of factors: 46% of owners blame overall price increases, alongside general inflation, labor costs, and genuinely more advanced treatment options than a decade ago.

Should I get pet insurance?

It's worth understanding honestly: US adoption is roughly 5.46% for dogs and 2.04% for cats, far behind Sweden's 95%/69%, due to real structural friction, not because it doesn't work.

Keep reading

A Note on Scope

This guide summarizes published survey data on veterinary costs and pet insurance. It is not financial or veterinary advice, and does not recommend a specific insurance product.

Sources

Image credits