Brea, CA. (July 6, 2006) --- With the recent surge of new pet health insurance providers entering the marketplace, a convenient resource for pet owners in search of the ideal insurer has been made available on petinsurance.com. The Pet Insurance Comparison Shopping Guide at http://www.petinsurance.com/, a comprehensive list of important criteria pet owners should consider when looking for a provider, presents petinsurance.com visitors with a checklist of 17 items for evaluating pet health insurers.

“We’ve developed this guide in an effort to help consumers make the most educated pet insurance decision possible,” said petinsurance.com spokesman Curtis Steinhoff. “Similar to purchasing human health insurance, there are several variables that one should take into account when selecting the provider that’s optimal for their pet. Our Web-based guide ensures people are making an apples-to-apples comparison when evaluating pet insurance providers.”

The online comparison tool presents a host of questions that pet owners should be asking about the pet insurer they are researching in a user-friendly PDF format. From business basics (How long has the company been in business?) to plan specifics (Does the policy have age limits?), this quick-reference guide prompts pet owners to study the important details of a provider and its plans before they actually enroll. “There is a lot of important provider background to consider, eligibility factors to discover, and plan intricacies to understand when it comes to any type of insurance,” adds Steinhoff.

The tool allows pet owners to compare two competitors with the nation’s oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance, Veterinary Pet Insurance Co./DVM Insurance Agency (VPI). The majority of the questions are simple yes/no in format, but a few open-ended queries are included, such as how long you have to file a claim. Created as a PDF document, the guide was intended for easy downloading for consumers who wish to reference the chart from their desktops or print a copy to discuss with their family members.