Reader's digest sponsors your kitty's chemo

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2002 by Whitney Joiner

Condensing books and interviewing the First Lady may be fun, but what Reader's Digest really wants to do, apparently, is help insure your pets.

To help the 23 million pet owners in its audience pay for the unforeseen costs of veterinary care, Reader's Digest is endorsing a new product, Pet Care Pet Insurance Programs, offered by Pethealth Inc.

The publisher isn't selling the insurance, notes Milton Pappas, Reader's Digest Association director of U.S. financial service. "Our partner offers the products. We just help them in developing their marketing strategy." And, he could add, by offering Pethealth Inc. access to the Reader's Digest subscriber database. Pappas wouldn't give the financial details, but, he says, "Obviously, there is some form of compensation."

Pethealth covers accidents and illnesses only for cats and dogs. "If you're a pet owner, you know you have to take your dog for the annual checkup, and you tend to budget for that," says Pappas. "What you can't budget for is cat chemotherapy. I think it costs over $2,000. It's very expensive."

Insurance companies aren't very popular nowadays. Isn't Reader's Digest worried that its brand might suffer by getting into that business? "If somebody is hit with an unexpected medical bill, then they're faced with a very difficult decision--euthanasia," says Pappas. "With insurance, they don't have to do that."