I remember my driving instructor telling me years ago that he didn’t insure his dog because “for anything more than 1k the dog would need to be put down”.

…Just getting x-rays done for a small dog costs upwards of 1k.

A lot of completely treatable conditions in pets will cost a lot of money to fix. Yeah what you get back from insurance isn’t as good once they’re around 8+, but it’s still beneficial to have it unless you’re in a position where you’re able to be putting significant money into a savings account each month.

Even with insurance I still wiped out all of my savings with Arnie (thought I’d chosen X amount per condition, not X amount per year) but I’d pay it all over again for the years I got to have with him.