AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, if you have a furry companion running around the house or even a scaly or feathered one, you've probably felt the pain of increased pet care costs. And that is what we are looking at today on the latest installment of our series Cost of Living: The Price We Pay. Our colleagues over at The Indicator, Adrian Ma and Darian Woods, talk to a vet from Cleveland, Ohio.
ADRIAN MA, BYLINE: You could argue that human doctors have it kind of easy. I mean, after all, they only have to take care of one species while vets, they might have to treat a dog and a cat, a snake and a flying squirrel all in one afternoon.
DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE: And this sort of unpredictability is what Adam Hechko loves about veterinary medicine.
ADAM HECHKO: I do everything, but surgery's my thing. We helped a pet this week that had a foreign body - an obstruction - had eaten a toy.
MA: Can I ask what kind of pet and what kind of toy, or is this like a HIPAA violation?
HECHKO: This one was a squeaker toy.
MA: Yeah, that go (imitating squeaking sound).
HECHKO: Uh-huh. So the dog had pulled out that, swallowed it whole and it had gotten stuck. It was a lab. And labs are known for being silly and eating things sometimes.
WOODS: We asked Adam straight up, what's up with the soaring cost of vet care?
MA: Adam says the costs of operating a practice have just gone up a lot. Medication is more expensive, thanks in part to tariffs. For the same reason, medical supplies like bandages, gowns and syringes are more expensive. Adam says a box of exam gloves costs more than twice what it did just a year or so ago.
WOODS: But maybe the biggest cost pressure, Adam says, has been the cost of labor.
HECHKO: And in veterinary medicine, many practices, that labor cost exceeds 50% of our overall costs.
MA: What Adam is describing here is a perfect example of a classic economic idea called Baumol's cost disease.
WOODS: There are certain industries that get a lot more productive each year thanks to advances in technology - things like manufacturing. And then there are industries where productivity is really hard to increase because the jobs are just so inherently dependent on human labor.
MA: This explains why over time, we've seen big-screen TVs and computer software become cheaper but certain services that require human labor have gotten more expensive. There isn't yet a robot or an AI in the world that can watch your kid or administer an IV or unclog your toilet. And if we as a society want people to become caretakers and nurses, plumbers and animal surgeons, wages for those jobs have to rise over time. Otherwise, a lot of people that might've chosen to do those jobs will choose to do something else. And that is Baumol's cost disease in a nutshell.
WOODS: So Baumol's cost disease helps explain the rising cost of pet care, but it doesn't give the full picture. In recent years, veterinary care has been increasingly taken over by private equity firms, and vets who work at corporate-owned practices are under significantly more pressure to generate profits than those who work at independent ones. That's according to a 2023 study.
MA: One more reason people are spending more on pet care is that many pet owners are just willing to spend more on pet care. Adam Hechko says he's noticed a shift in the culture of pet ownership compared to a few years ago, and he chalks it up to pandemic lockdowns.
HECHKO: Some of the only social interactions that people had or companionship was their pets in their house, and leaning on them to get through some of those challenges I think only strengthened the bond.
WOODS: The shift to remote work meant many people were, for the first time, spending all day with their pets. So they became more attuned to their fur babies' every hiccup or odd behavior. And Adam believes that's made many people more willing to pay for the very best care they can afford to keep their pet healthy.
HECHKO: I think pet owners have - are driving some of that up because they're looking for more options and more services.
WOODS: Adam did have some advice. He says get to know your vet and take your pet for regular checkups to help spot health issues before they become serious and more expensive to treat.
MA: And he says you could consider buying pet health insurance, but we should say those policies are not cheap. Adrian Ma.
WOODS: Darian Woods, NPR News.
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