Indoor life avoids some risks — but the costly feline illnesses do not care whether your cat goes outside.
It's a fair question: if your cat never goes outside, do you really need insurance? Indoor living does cut accident risk. But the biggest feline vet bills come from illness, and indoor cats get those just as much as outdoor ones.
Cats are cheaper to insure than dogs — often around half the premium — because they're smaller and have fewer orthopedic claims. That makes the protection relatively inexpensive for the catastrophic-illness coverage it provides.
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Often yes. Indoor cats avoid many accidents but still develop expensive illnesses — kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, urinary blockages, and cancer. Because cats are relatively cheap to insure, the catastrophic-illness protection is usually good value, especially if you enroll while the cat is young.
Accidents still happen indoors — swallowed string or toys, falls, and toxic plants or medications. Accident-and-illness coverage handles both, and illness is the bigger financial risk for indoor cats.
On average around $30 a month for accident-and-illness coverage, though it varies with age, location, and the plan. Cats typically cost about half what dogs do to insure.