ABC News recently featured, on its Nightline show, a segment on pet care. (You can get an audio podcast here).

Admittedly, I'm not much of an pet person, but still, I was surprised at the lengths to which people will go for their pets. Roughly one quarter of all spending on pets--$10 billion--is on medical care.

And what medical care: chemotherapy, dialysis, and hip replacements were among a few of the treatments featured in the story. One person said, paraphrasing, I hate spending money on my own health care [perhaps she's used to getting it "free?"], but I don't hesitate to spend what's necessary on Fido. Another audio clip, perhaps it was the same person, I don't remember, was "I'd mortgage my house, if that's what it took."

Of course there are some significant differences between human care and animal care. Most importantly, you're not going to put grandma down because she has cancer (though I suppose Dr. Death might help her now that he is out of prison). Another difference is that most pet spending is out of pocket--only 5 percent of pet owners have pet insurance. What that tells me is that the idea that medical professionals should get paid for their service isn't yet dead.

(For more on pet care, see Paul Gessing's post from the summer.)