US pet insurance policies in force

Half a minute of Super Bowl airtime and a vet visit covered by a policy, both more expensive than they used to be. Two industries pricing for households that no longer think twice about either expense.

Super Bowl 30-second ad rates climbed from about 2.2 million dollars in 2002 to over 7 million by 2022 as the broadcast became one of the last unfractured live audiences in American media. US pet insurance policies grew from a tiny base to about 4.4 million in the same window, riding the broader pet humanisation trend and employer pet-benefit adoption. Both lines are creatures of the same disposable-income arithmetic: when households decide certain things are worth their own line item, the suppliers happily widen their pricing power.

Two lines that scale with how much a household will defend. The TV ad and the dog's hip surgery, both protected items.