Kim So-young: "Promoting Pet Insurance Activation through Partnerships between Insurance Companies and Animal Hospitals"

Seminar on the Promotion of Pet Insurance

Kim So-young, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, is speaking at the Digital Asset Special Committee's ruling and opposition party meeting held on the 24th at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the topic of "SVB Incident & Crypto Winter, Is Another Financially Driven Economic Crisis Coming?" Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Kim So-young, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said on the 28th, "If a system is established that allows easy registration of pets and insurance subscription through partnerships between insurance companies and animal hospitals, along with the transmission of claim documents, pet insurance usage will become much more convenient."

Vice Chairman Kim attended the ‘Pet Healthcare Industry and Strengthening the Role of Insurance Seminar’ hosted by the Korea Insurance Research Institute at the Korean Re Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and stated, "When insurance companies partner with animal hospitals, consumers will be able to use a variety of affordable insurance products, and animal hospitals and related industries can expect improved profitability through the expansion of the pet industry market."

Recently, the domestic pet-related market has been rapidly increasing to the extent that the term 'pandemic puppy' has emerged. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the number of pets (dogs and cats) in Korea increased by 25.8% over four years, from 6.35 million in 2018 to 7.99 million last year.

Vice Chairman Kim said, "As the number of households raising pets increases, the demand for animal medical expenses is also rising, so pet insurance will contribute to the development of industries related to reducing pet care and medical costs." However, she diagnosed that "the subscription rate is still low, and there are limitations in product development due to a lack of infrastructure related to pet medical treatment items and registration systems."

She continued, mentioning the activation of pet insurance through partnerships between insurance companies and animal hospitals, saying, "The government will strengthen cooperation among relevant ministries and agencies to improve pet registration rates and validity, as well as the medical treatment item system," and added, "We plan to operate the pet insurance activation task force (TF) diligently."

At the seminar, overseas cases and preliminary tasks related to the activation of pet insurance were discussed, mainly by the fintech and insurance industries. Kang Sang-wook, Senior Executive at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, emphasized the need to develop products with reasonable premium levels and the entry of specialized pet insurance companies. Kim Kyung-sun, a research fellow at the Korea Insurance Research Institute, proposed measures such as expanding animal registration, standardizing medical treatment items, expanding issuance and transmission of medical records, and establishing partnership relationships between insurance companies and animal hospitals.

The Financial Services Commission stated, "Based on the discussions at this seminar, we are preparing measures to activate pet insurance, including improving infrastructure related to pet registration and medical treatment items through cooperation among relevant ministries and agencies, and establishing a cooperative system based on partnerships between the veterinary and insurance industries." They added, "We will announce these measures promptly after discussions with the government, related organizations, and stakeholders."